Bound to change
by mimi 007
Summary: The life is normal, until Rei suddenly is called home to his village in state of an emergency. The elder of the village have had bad visions. Now, Kai and the others are left alone to deal with this. But the world is bound to change.
1. The not so average day

Okay, first fic I have ever posted... Or at least, that's what I think... I have just thought it up, but I hope you wouldn't mind reviewing; telling me what to change in my writing style, give suggestions for the plot, giving suggestions for a pairing (I have none in mind right now, but wouldn't mind it), and... Well, overall good critic. And please don't just say 'I didn't like it' or 'you write awful', cause that's not helping me to get better ;)

Disclaimer: Do not own beyblade or the characters in beyblade, nor the game beyblade itself. Do own the plot and nonebeybladecharacters (OCs'), and my thoughts.

Warning: I kill characters. It's kind of a hobby. Or a habit. Bad habit. The ones that is nearly certain to die (after looooooong suffering) is my faves, my hates and the one's where it simply fits in. You can't be sure of my actions, keep that in mind!

Oh, and... I love very red steak ^^ Don't ask me why I wrote that, I don't have an answer.

* * *

The not so average day

* * *

Violet eyes sought through the skies, lazy clouds passing their way. As always, Kai laid back in the grass in the less peopled part of the small city, his face smooth and the cheeks covered with his normal face paint. The white cloth around his neck covered the earth beside him, though his muscular arms hid the upper part of it by laying under his head.

A lazy smile crossed his face, but was forced away as soon as he heard footsteps. "Go away," he demanded. He might have changed a lot, he might have gotten nicer after the incident on the icy lake in Russia, or after his loss and winning over Brooklyn and the BEGA, but still... He had a part of him that would continue to be. It was better and easier, not showing too much emotion. The reason for this, he might have lost track of trough his changes, but it was simply easier. That was a fact.

Rei crossed his arms. He hadn't been expecting anything else, but he had at least thought... Well, something better. Kai didn't even look at him. "I just came to inform you that I'm heading back to China," the neko-jin informed, his golden eyes slightly narrowed. But Kai then raised his head then, which _was _more than the raven haired had expected, and lifted an eyebrow.

"And why would you do that?" Kai wouldn't believe it simply was that letter an elder of the village had sent his team-mate. Rei was too collected, and clever, to worry about that. Max, Tyson and Kenny had thought it stupid too, and Daichi hadn't even listened after the first three lines. Only Hillary was a little of a worry head, but she, too, ended up seeing it as a joke. The slate haired let a questioning look slip in to the violet eyes and tilted his head, just the slightest bit.

"Thought we was going to stay here for a while, making Tyson happy with the four of us, being here and well again. And you have told the others, too, haven't you?" Kai didn't want to be the one to tell the rest of the gang. Rei had pride and wouldn't normally do something like that, but he was to kind too, and knew it. If he saw the disappointed look in Tysons' brown eyes or Max' sad face, he might reconsider something he already had chosen.

At least, Kai could handle that. But it would simply hurt the two others even more, if Kai was the one to tell them.

"Yes, I have." Rei didn't lie, and the slate didn't believe Reis feeling of honour would let him lie about that. "And no, it's not _that_ letter. I got a new one, and this time, they are demanding me to go home."

"For some kind of vision that might not even come true?" The voice was calm, and at least, he didn't call it stupid, but even so the disbelief was obvious.

"Well, _you _do not know how it is to grow up in a village, so you _do not _understand what I feel," Rei got to his own, and the villages', protection. But of course, no, Kai did not know. Maybe, just maybe, an abbey could get that feeling in its members. But not the abbey he had wasted his too short childhood on.

"Do whatever you want," the slate answered, shrugging, and leaned back his head again and watched the clouds again. Like it didn't matter. Like it didn't matter at all.

Rei stared at him. It hurt. He hadn't expected much, but not to care, no effort at all to stop him from leaving, nothing... it was too low, even for Kai. It hurt a lot. Though changed, he seemed to still be some kind of cold. "Well, then..." He hesitated a moment, his golden eyes widening at the pain the slate had put in his heart. He wondered... Would he ever go back? He didn't think so. "Bye."

But as the younger teen turned, Kai once again raised his head. The violet eyes did, just for the smallest moment, show hurt and disappointment. Then, they went back to the emotionless, uncaring stare. "I was even going to tell them it was my birthday in five days," he muttered, watching Reis' back as the neko-jin walked away. "We have held the birthdays for the others in the last years... I was even going to let them celebrate me this year." He let his head fall back again, looking lost at the sky. "I was going to tell them when it was... But... Now the mood will be spoiled for the next couple of weeks." He sighed, his ears now unable to hear his team-mate leave. The light feet of the half-cat and the easy breathing of the predator. Kai didn't look up as he said the words louder this time.

"There is always a next year."

* * *

There was unbelievably quiet in the Grangers' dojo, where the most of their time together was spend. Max slept and lived home at the hobby shop, Hillary at her house, Tyson and Daichi at the dojo. And Kai... Kinda had a place somewhere. He had refused to tell anyone of them, keeping his privacy. But he was always there when he was needed, and a lot more time.

Not that he would say it aloud, but... he kind of liked their presence. They could make him smile, even if just a little. That... was special. But he refused to let them know that. It would only... confuse them.

But today, the mood was not for laughter or happiness. They all was quiet, even the little, always yelling Daichi. They all sat on the floor, Tyson, Max, Kenny, Hillary, Daichi and Kai, and though one of them did not show it, they knew they shared confusion.

"Why the hell did he leave?" Tyson groaned, for the twentieth time, staring at the floor.

"He claimed he got another letter," Max answered, for the twentieth time, staring out the window. The answer didn't say anything at all, but anything else, they didn't know. They knew he was demanded to go back to the village of the neko-jins... for what?

"What did the first letter say?" Hillary asked, just as Tyson was about to ask once again. As if he would get a new answer for his twenty-first try. It seemed that... without Rei, they were even more seriously annoying. Kai was both bored and sad about the situation, but only one of the feelings was let through to his face.

"Something about 'A big change in the world', and 'A lot of suffering will come'," Max answered. "Do you think he still have it here? He stayed here, anyway, so he might have left it..." There was quiet a long time, all of them thinking. Where had he left the first letter? The last one, he probably had with him on the plane...

"I KNOW!!" Daichi suddenly yelled out, jumping to his feet and running out of the room. The others stared at the little figure, as it disappeared into the kitchen and on to the floor. It seemed the little guy finally had woken up again, and now was fumbling with something under the dinnertable. "HEERE! HERE, HERE, READ IT ALOUD!" the little guy ran into the room, putting the letter in Kais' hand. How weird was that? But, in the end, he was the most adult-ish person. Normally, it would be something the little guy sat Rei to do. But Rei weren't here right now.

But Kai chose to obey, simply too curios himself;

"Dear Rei.

We hoped to get you back to the village. Something bad is going to happen, and we are getting the villagers gathered to make sure everyone is still al right and that none of my visions have come true yet.

To sum up short, the last two weeks, I have had dreams. It's something about the death of a lot of adult humans, and man with violet hair and a black mask. Also, a boy with hair both light and dark and..." Kais' violet eyes widened a little as he stopped for a moment. "... and violet eyes, standing with a bloody knife and threatening a group of people." That part, Rei hadn't told them. He had simply read... the next lines, it seems, as if that was all the trouble. He had left that part out.

"The visions includes the death of a lot of people by the ring of a drill, too, and big, black castles with cells. A lot of suffering is going to come. The world will change, and it is for the worst.

I know some of my visions in the past haven't come true. Also, I know that it is hard to believe. Most things I see is about Kevin, falling from his training pole, or what we are going to have for dinner tomorrow. This is very different from everything else I have seen. But the dreams have followed me for a long time now, and that makes it nearly certain to happen.

If it comes to war, we have to be prepared. You are one of our best warriors, and can help us train the youngster to help us in the fight.

I am very concerned about this, so we hope you come home.

The dearest pleas, the Elder Chou."

There was a long silence afterwards. Kais eyes slid over the letter again a few times, constantly stopping at the end of the second big part. He couldn't understand. Well, he understood that Boris was going to try and make a comeback, and it would cause a lot of death, but what about the last part? Well... it could be anyone with both 'light and dark' hair. And violet. Anyone... But he knew no one else than... He looked up, and by the look in their eyes, he knew they had got it.

"It could be anyone," he said, his voice cold and calm. Inside, he was still fighting the thought. He had never considered, never thought... Would he become a murderer? No, it might not even be true. The elder himself said that too. "Besides, we do not know if it even comes true."

They were still silent. Then Tyson, of all people, nodded. "No. It probably won't happen. But... Well, the elderly guy here believes this, and Rei most respect his elder, so he choose to go home. That's that, then..."

They all nodded, but something in Kai said different. There was something about it... It could be normal nightmares, but he had never entered the village to let the man get a glimpse of him, nor had the village any TV's to see Boris' ugly face. And what did he mean about the ring of a drill? That sounded like simple nonsense...

He rose from the floor with an un-Kai-ish expression in his face. Either he did not know that he showed wonder, confusion and hurt because of his thoughts, or he was too tied up in the emotions to know it.

The others stared at him when he turned around and left without a word. Then, their eyes met, wondering and lacking the ability to understand what had happened. "Do you think... do you think he might actually believe it?" Max asked, looking scared. The team captain was always quiet and calm, looking at the bigger pictures. If he believed... Max was ready to do it to, in the end. But the fact that he maybe did believe was... Scary. He never seemed so superstitious.

"Well... If it was going to become true, then he is said to..." Kenny muttered, but didn't remember the whole letter. He crawled over to where the letter had slipped out of Kais hands. "A boy with hair both light and dark and violet eyes, standing with a bloody knife and threatening a group of people. It technically calls him an upcoming killer. How would you react to that? Even if it does not come true, it's still most bring up thoguhts."

"But it's just nonsense, he said it himself," Tyson said after a little thinking. He would react in another way than Kai, but if he wasn't so loud, yeah, he understood that he, too, would leave them to calm himself and making sure it wasn't true. "You think he want to talk about it?"

"Of course not," Hillary snapped, rolling her eyes.

"Yeah, and why not?" Tyson snapped back, ready to start another one of their arguments.

"Because he is Kai." That was a statement Tyson was unable to argue with.

* * *

Heavy breathing was heard as another old wooden box was smashed into pieces. The little, blue-and-red beyblade spun throgh the boxes as a knife through warm butter, and leaving nothing but splinters behind. Running beside it, following it's movement, was Kai. The violet eyes was clear of emotions, but he was covered in sweat an breathing heavier than he could remember he had done in a long time.

He had chosen to train in stead of thinking. And the best place to train was a deserted place, so he had come to his old Bladeshark-warehouse. The Bladesharks had crumbled without him, so the place had been standing with nothing for years now, and the grass area outside the warehouse had been so covered with young trees and weeds that claimed him and demanded him to stay with them.

His beyblade flew back in his hands, and for the first time for God knows how long he looked up from his training. Outside the windows it was absolutely black, the day had come to its twelfth hour. It had been many years since he had trained so hard. It really had. And so long. He looked at his watch. It had been about 5 pm when he left the other, and half an hour later he had begun his training to get a grip of his thoughts.

Now, he nearly couldn't remember what had made him snap. It wasn't the fact that Rei left, that he was sure of, but it had something to do with that. And something with the creep called Boris.

He began to walk. Got out of the warehouse. He was a little hungry, so he would buy some fast food on the way back. A hand pushed through the sweaty, shale part of his hair.

He was absolutely exhausted. His mind was too tired to think, and his body was already numb all over. It felt good. He would push the others through this one of the next days, letting them feel it too. When they had done it a few times, they would learn to appreciate that feeling. But right now, he had to make it all the way home.

The clock announced the 12th November just as he finally got to bed. No thoughts about knifes, Boris or uncertain killings of the future was able to keep the sixteen year old awake.

* * *

I know that Kai technically doesn't _really _have light and dark hair in the G-revolution, but when the back is black, the dark-greyish-slate part is looking light. But, here was the first chapter. Enjoy in joy, read on if you want and review if you like. I will continue this, for my own sake if you do not review to show me you like it. But I'm born a pessimist, so I do not believe it's good.

Well...

Enjoy in joy ^.^


	2. Happy birthday, Kai

So, I would like to represent the rules I have set up for myself. I WILL publish a new chapter every Sunday. Read my rules more specific in my profile, if you are interested, but if I begin to get sloppy and do not keep my rules, I hope the reviewers makes sure to curse me to death ^.^

Sidenote: I have made Kais' birthday the 16th, as I have found quite a few dates he is supposed to be born. Just not to confuse anyone who actually do know what it IS supposed to be. I have found 16th November, 18th November and 2nd August, so I am confused. But I will now make it on the 16th, no matter what it really is ^.^ Bear with me, I'm just a foolish little child.

Disclaimer: Me don't own anything, me wanna own, me can't own, me sad...

Warning: Still kill characters ^.^ I'm sorry, really sorry ^.^

Anyway, thanks for the reviews!! Didn't think that I would get anyone this early in my story, so I am very surprised. Anyway, answering!:

Phoenixfyre101: Thanks for reviewing, and yes, the blitz-boys are coming (as a matter of fact, they will get a great deal of responsibility and such). I wouldn't be able not to, as one of my faves is Tala, and a person I like a lot is Bryan (how can you not, seriously, he is soo evilish!! xD). They may enter this chapter, though that's not what I have in mind, but will enter the one after this. And the one I will use the most is Bryan. Just warning you, if you had hoped for Tala.

FlamingIce94: I meant 'Bound to change', though the other version is right to confuse you, as it, too, has a lot to do with the story. Thank you for saying it, I wouldn't have found the mistake. If you read on and still do not get the bond-changing-thing, ask. I kinda have promised to answer ^.^

* * *

Happy birthday, Kai...

* * *

As normal, when Kai was controlling things, they panted heavily. Kai, though his face was emotionless, seemed to enjoy himself. A lot. And that wasn't only because he made sure to get a good workout.

After having disappeared from the earth for two days, he had shown himself at Tysons house at five o'clock in the morning, only to drag out the two sleepyheads, who lived there. On a Sunday. Then, he had continued all around, and had even forced Hillary out of bed far too early.

Clearly amused by Tysons' cursing at him and Max' continued yawning, Kai had showed them the old warehouse. At first, they had been confused – and tired – though only one of those had to do with the building. Why would he show them the Bladesharks old house?

He had told them that the Bladesharks did not exist any more, only former members. And then, he had told them to train. Of course, only using two sentences, and only having five words in each. That was his way of doing things, and that was enough to make Tyson argue. Five in the morning was too early, and that was even without breakfast. And Kai weren't their captain any more, either.

"I simply offered you to train with me. You never know what tomorrow brings, and it was a request from a friend more than a team captain. But if food is more to you," Kai had let his eyes go over them all, watching them without showing too much emotion, but still having a little disappointment slip through. It wasn't even a forced feeling, as he _had _hoped that they wanted to train with them, "then you are all free to go." He was emotional enough to make them stay, and let them see a smile of happiness too.

Now, they trained all together, stomachs grumbling and muscles aching, in the end they all only fuelled by Kais strength and determination to keep going. Even Hillary and Kenny had made a try as they saw the others not holding back. It was nearly ten o'clock before Kai was done. He hadn't got any breakfast, either, and he could feel his hunger get more critical. As he sat down on one of the boxes that was yet to get killed. Yeah, exactly, killing.

The others sat down too, now where the whipper was as tired as the whipped. He hadn't concentrated on them, though, but purely on his own. Not normal, but it had been long since he had put them through any kind of training. And... Well, Tyson had been right about it. Kai weren't their leader now, so they had to take care of their own training now. And Kai showed this by concentrating only on himself... or he was simply egoistic. It seemed like the same thing.

They went back to Tysons dojo, where Daichi was living too. Grandpa hopefully had breakfast ready, even though it was so late in the morning. Late, as in 'they had been up for five hours'. On normal weekend-days, most of them just would have gotten up at this time of the day, or might even still be sleeping. Teens were just teens, weren't they?

They all, except Kai, groaned when they sat to eat their breakfast. And the only reason Kai weren't in on it was just that he didn't want to show what state he had left himself in. In stead, the slatehaired waited for Tyson getting his grandpa to make food. For some reason, the old guy gave him a strange look of amusement and understanding. That, he had always done. It could give the slate the creeps, but he didn't show. It was just as if the old guy knew something he was supposed to know too. It had probably to do with the training. This early, and them being worn so out, it must have been Kais doing. But Kai still didn't understand that look.

"Give us some food!" Tyson begged his grandpa. The old man laughed a came with a pile of American pancakes, which made Max even more excited about getting breakfast. The others began to chat as Kai began eating with his eyes halfway closed, though listening to the conversation.

"Man, am I the only one who is in total pain? I'm freaking sore all over!" Max said, and the slatehaired forced the smile of his face even before it came. It only meant the blonde had taken it seriously, which was good enough.

To the awe of them all, Tyson stared at his half-eaten personal mountain of pancakes. "Man, I can't even eat! How did that happen?" (Well, I don't know with you, but when I have worked out for a few hours, I nearly can't eat anything in a long time after I've begun to relax. That only means you have done a great jump with torturing you body with running and whatever you do ^.^) This time, Kais smirk was obvious. It simply was impossible to keep from his face.

To make even Tyson, the all-eating, always eating, never totally full Tyson be unable to wolf his food down... It seemed like the work of an artist more than from the hand of a facepainted, slatehaired teen.

"Well, I had a good workout too," Kenny mumbled, though not having been at it as hard as the others. It had simply seemed inspiring, the way they had fought past their own limits. He had tried, just a little bit.

"You did good, too, Kenny," Hillary smiled, trying to do her sweaty hair.

"He did? I thought he stop-"

"SHUT UP, TYSON," Hillary snapped, trying to hit him from his seat, the opposite of her own.

"WHY SHOULD I?!" Tyson yelled back as he, too, stood up.

Kai sighed.

As did Kenny. "Seriously, Hillary, I know I didn't do as much a the others did, please don't try to protect me," he begged, obviously embarrassed about her, coming to his defences.

"Everyone do as their power let them, and nothing more than that, so you did good!" she continued, making both Kenny and Kai flinch. Kai didn't know why he reacted, but even though there was sense in her words, he... didn't feel them to be right. It was like when people said it was okay to lose a battle, as long as you did your best... It just... Didn't seem... _Right_. He had agreed with others sometimes, but when you was defeated, you should go back and fight yourself to the victory. It was never _okay _to lose.

But this wasn't about losing, it was about stopping before you hurt yourself while training. Why didn't that sound right? It seemed like the most right thing that had been said in this conversation.

While Kai was lost in his thoughts, the conversation got on without anyone noticing him dozing off. No surprise, though, as he wasn't part of the conversation anyway.

"... What we are going to do tonight," Kai heard Tyson wonder. He got enough of it to understand the sentence, but not enough to know how they got on the 'what are we going to do with our boring night'-track. It seemed off, when the had just discussed the training. How long had he been lost in thoughts?

Too long, it seemed. "We could have a party. Dad isn't home, and mom is in America. It wouldn't be too hard to get a bunch of people to comes. People from school, simple fans, you know?" Max smiled crookedly. The others seemed to approve, even Kenny and Hillary. God, how did they get so stupid ideas?!

"No." Rei weren't there to make them think it over, so he had to do it, how stupid it might be. Rei would let them reflect the consequences, then let them make the decision. Kai, on the other hand, didn't like parties. Too many people, too loud bad music, too much alcohol. He didn't mind those thing separated, he could enjoy drinking himself in the fence when he was alone, and he could walk the streets in the rush hours and could walk past music stores without throwing up, but parties brought it all together to make it the hottest day in hell.

"Spoilsport," Tyson mumbled. "Why shouldn't we?"

"Well, for one thing, school tomorrow. You will have a bad hangover if you do not control yourselves, and since I don't think you can do that, it's easier not to have the party at all. And you do not know what to eat, and probably don't know who to invite. I'm not going to come, and since Rei is gone, you have no one to babysit you."

"Aw, Kai, seriously, you are too harsh! Why is it that you hate fun so much?" Tyson whined. The others got over the consequences, and found Kai right – if they were going to drink a lot. They thought they could control it, and that Kai gave them too little credit.

"Then, enjoy your party and plan it well. I'm leaving now." He stood up and turned, his face showing slight irritation. They stared at him a moment, before they ended up reacting anyway.

"Kai, it could be fuuun," Max said, begging. The wide, blue eyes stared at him, hoping he would turn around and accept. "I know you are not in to that kind of stuff, that you don't enjoy too many people and too much alcohol, but we are _friends_. Can't you give us a chance?"

Kai hesitated. He himself had already used the friends-tactic today when he got them into the warehouse. He had promised himself to fall for that cheap trick, but Max sounded like he meant it, how corny and stupid the words might be. Slowly, the slate turned around, watching them in silence.

"I'm going to be there in the beginning. I leave whenever I want. I am not helping you to plan it. Got that?" The fires' words were cold as ice as he turned once again, not looking back at them over his shoulders as he left. Not seeing the happy smiles on the youngers' faces as he had chosen to approve.

"Thanks, Kai," Max mumbled. "We appreciate it."

* * *

"Man, we are lucky," Tyson said, glaring at the list of people that was able to come. A lot of their less crazy fans, some of their classmates and a bunch of half-strangers. Their closest friends were shattered across the globe, and with one day to come over, none of those would be coming. It was sad, yeah, sure. But they wanted to party, and there was a _whole week _before next weekend.

"Yeah, a lot is coming, and none of them is total psychos," Max said, laughing, as he looked at the list over Tysons shoulder. "And less than a day to prepare. Can't say I'm not happy." Though it would have been better if Rei had been there...

"Have you told them to eat at home? Or else, we might have to cook..."

"Please, Kenny, I have thought of that!" Tyson grumbled. "And people take their own drinks. I'm not wasting my money on other people so they can get drunk."

"Think everyone already knew that, Tyson," Max said, rolling his eyes as he looked around the house. It seemed about ready for a bunch of people, dancing and drinking their ass off. Nothing worth anything was out in the open, only a few lamps were hanging down from the ceiling. Only with handcraft and hands understanding a screwdriver would they be able to get those down, but neither of them could do that. Hopefully, it wouldn't get _that _wild.

"Then, we might have to tell that to Kai," Kenny said, making the others look at him in wonder.

"It's kind of basic rules of a party, Kenny, Kai isn't stupid. You should be the last to think that about hi-"

"Do you even think he drinks?" Tyson asked, interrupting Hillary. She burned holes in the back of his head as she glared at him, so tensely furious that it could scare an angry male elephant.

"The only reason I say this is just that he aren't the party-type, we know that. But I'm sure he drinks. Sometimes, at least." Kenny looked a little embarrassed as the other boys glared at him. Hillary sighed and shook her head.

"I'll find him and tell him, is none of you others are going to. He is our friend, after all, and I don't know about you, but I hoped we would be able to change his mind about leaving the party as early as possible," she said, glaring fiercely at all of them as she got out of the house.

Only to come back after ten minutes, looking confused. "Where the hell do he even live? Your grandpa didn't know, Tyson, so do you guys know? You have to know! He was your teammate!" The silence told everything. Tyson and Max lived at their own homes, and when Rei was in Japan, he would mostly live with Max. But Kai... Well, he had always made sure to be there before they needed him, as he normally got up pretty early in the morning.

"I haven't been his teammate," Daichi seemed to need to protect himself with. But it weren't him Hillary was pissed off of right now.

They didn't know where he lived. From the look of Hillarys' face, it was obvious that she thought very low of them right now. "You're all freaking idiots. What about a cellphone? Do you even have his number?!" Once again there was silent, and right when Hillary was going to yell again, Kenny poped up his phone.

"Here, you can call him from my phone." He handed it over very cautiously, and Hillary took the phone to her ear. "Eh... Press the green button first," Kenny said, he himself pushing a button on an imaginary cellphone.

"Yeah, sure," she said, looking embarrassed as she pushed the button and once again put the phone to her ear.

"_Hn?" _a voice said, and by the monotone and the taciturn voice, it was obviously Kai, even though the phone had twisted the voice up. Even just the slightest bit.

"Hi, Kai, it's Hillary," she said, trying to be cheery. But Kai, normally being quiet and a little sarcastic, seemed to be even more edgy, irritated and strict on the phone.

"_That I _am_ aware of," _the voice informed her, and he didn't seem to feel the need of hiding his feelings when his face was concealed. He was sounding so very annoyed and unpleased, and just be looking at the other faces around her, she knew that they had done the mistake of calling Kai once too. He probably felt it was some kind of sniffing around in his privacy, calling him. They looked at her, all of with amusement and awe.

"It's just... about the party... You are still coming?" she stuttered, silently promising herself to decapitate them when she had ended the call to something that felt like Satans favourite demon. She had to get to the point fast, and then make them pay for their evil trick on her. Or, well, they could have warned her, at least. Damn her for being nice.

"_Hn." _No need for unnecessary words.

"It's just..." Man, he probably knew! Then, she would make him look like an idiot! She leapt out of the room, away from the glaring boys, and sat down in the garden behind the house. She thought for a moment, afraid of saying something wrong that would end up pissing him off. He wasn't stupid, as she herself had said to the other. "Well, we just wanted to make sure you took some drinks with you, for yourself. If you drink, that is. And eat at home too."

There was silent a long time. Hillary was afraid that she had pissed him off, and that he was simply holding himself back in an attempt not to yell at her, accusing her for thinking him and idiot. Then, she found out that he... seemed to pant pretty hard, in a very tense way. As if he was fighting really hard. She felt herself shrinking, and opened her mouth to say sorry.

"_Thank you,"_ the voice finally said, and after a very short amount of time, she heard a man talking in the background.

"_Oh, Master Kai, are you lying out here?" _The voice sounded far too polite. Like Kai was some kind of important, royal person.

"_Yes," _Kai said, his voice sounding lower as he had lowered the phone from his ear.

"_What would you like to have for-" _

Then, the beeping told that nothing was in the other end. Hillary lowered the phone, and slowly walked up to the boys again. They watched her warily, but she had forgotten her anger and plans of vengeance. "Is Kai some kind of master?" she asked, looking confused.

"Well, he is a damn good beyblader, if that's what you mean," Daichi said, sitting and watching her from his seat in the middle of the room.

"No, I don't mean like that," she grumbled, looking annoyed at the little kid.

"Well, his grandfather is, or at least was, an important businessman in Russia. Kai should have more money in his pocket than any of us here. If he has access to his grandfathers' money, that is," Kenny answered. "But it doesn't seem like Kai is using a lot of money. I don't know why, but I have always had the feeling that he look down upon those with lots of money."

"So, technically, he could sit in a mansion with a cocktaildrink by a pool and have a sunbath while ordering his butler around?"

"Except the fact that it is November, yes, he could."

"He doesn't seem like someone who will let the nature decide what he does," Hillary mumbled. They continued to plan and get ready for the party. But Hillary was back to her old crush on the silent, muscular, older boy. In her head, Kai laid in a sun lounger by a pool, wearing his boxers and having sunglasses hiding the . In his one hand, he had an elegant cocktailglass, in the other hand his cellphone. He was waiting for her call. _"Oh, Master Kai, are you lying out here?" _This time, it wasn't a mans' voice asking.

* * *

"-dinner?" an old, whitehaired man in a black penguinsuit asked. Kai let the phone slip down in his pocket again. He didn't have time to go over his problems with saying thanks. It had been so hard, as if thanks had once again been a taboo-word. That Hillary... Well, sure, nice of her to be concerned, but he didn't need it. He hadn't thought of drinking anything tonight. Maybe he was going to, but only if something forced him to stay longer than expected.

"I'm eating out tonight, Saki," Kai answered the butler, eyeing the old man from the grass. He was in the garden of the mansion he borrowed from his grandfather, knowing that the freaky, old maniac wouldn't come. He still enjoyed his time, either in prison or in Russia. Why go to his little summerhouse? Visit his grandson? Yeah, like that would ever happen.

"It's not healthy, Master Kai. Eating out means pizza or burgers, and-"

"And I'm aware of what it is. I'm eating out," he snapped. He did not know where he had _that _old man. Maybe he worked for his grandfather, still. Maybe he had become fond of his young master. Whatever he did, Kai wouldn't tell him to much.

"Alright, Master," he said, bowing stiffly. "Are you going now, or will you continue to enjoy the garden?"

"The garden. I'll report you when I go, okay?" Creepy, overprotective butler. Except the creepy-part.

The man bowed again. He wasn't Japanese for nothing. "That's a relief. Just continue to enjoy the garden. I will keep the house for you today. We are supposed to clean up, so..." Kai let him talk, closing the violet eyes as he felt the wind tickling up his body and using the slate part of the hair as a playground. He loved the garden. Though it beginning to get a little cold, it weren't that bad.

Hours came and hours left. It was first when rainy clouds assembled he got up. He went inside, got a jacket on and then went out again, this time into icy cascades of water instead of a freezing wind. The jacket kept him from being soaked in a least four more seconds than if he hadn't had it, which surprisingly weren't enough for him to get to the bus stop.

Trying to dry his hair, he waited for the bus to come, so he could find a place to eat and go to the party, as he had promised.

It was good weather today, an old woman beside him claimed. She seemed to have been standing there for a while, might have missed her bus sometimes. Probably too blind to see the rain. "What bus are you going with?" he asked in a very polite tone.

"The seventh," she said, her smile wide with happiness. "The youth today can be so polite. It's nice to see someone in you age, concerned about the elders."

"You can come with me, then," he said, ignoring her latest words. Why he did this, he did not know. He simply felt like it. A very small smile appeared on his face as he heard her once again:

"Very polite, yes, very polite indeed."

* * *

The first people was beginning to come. They had umbrellas with them or having raincoats. That freaking Kai weren't there yet, and people was beginning to argue about the music and drinking without him. Tyson didn't like that. It annoyed him.

Suddenly, someone came in the door without knocking. Very rude. And very Kai. He ran over fast, ready to say something arguing, but that Kai looked so much like a half-drowned kitten that he had to keep his mouth shut to make sure he didn't laugh.

"As long as someone is amused," Kai grumbled, throwing the jacket on the hanger and walking in to the living room, where everyone was beginning to gather.

"Hi, Kai!" Max very loud said, smiling wide. Hurray. Now everyone glared at him.

"Hello," the slate answered, looking more dark and emotionless than normal. He walked over and sat on the couch, in the corner, alone. Every eye followed him. But for the time being, he was left alone.

The argument about the music continued, got more loud, until someone simply put a CD in to the CD-player. It seemed not to be a bad song, since everyone seemed to agree for it to be the first. Not everyone had come yet, so it didn't matter much which song it got to be.

Kai didn't know this song, but noted it was hard to dance to for the others. It started out with an odd sound, and he lost focus on it and watched the others come in. Then, suddenly, the singing began and the lyrics seemed to shout at him. He didn't know why, and found it actually very good, but they seemed to want to haunt him. And he was good at the music-thing. Always had been. But this... he shivered and got lost in the words.

"_You lie, silent there before me / Your tears, they mean nothing to my / The wind, howling at the window / The love, you never gave, I give to you._" The others suddenly didn't matter. He continued to listen, was drawn in by the woman, who was talking so clearly to him. He did not know how or why he felt this, but... It had a lot to do with him. In some very wrong way. Was it Boris...? No, he was never supposed to give him love. That sick bastard should keep for himself. Voltaire... It didn't feel like that, either.

"_You really don't deserve it / But now, there's nothing you can do / So sleep, in your only memory, of me / My dearest mother._" His mother? He didn't remember her. She had been at Voltaire's, died when he was four or five. I couldn't be her either. He was sure she had at least love her a little bit.

"_Here's a lullaby to close your eyes / Goodbye / It was always you that I despised / I don't feel enough for you to cry / Oh well / Here's a lullaby to close your eyes / Goodbye / Goodbye / Goodbye._" Lost in thoughts, where answers only were questions, he heard the song to the finish, not knowing the name or the true meaning that woman had put in those words.

Finally he opened his eyes, and nearly jumped when he saw an unknown girl sit beside him, imitating his arm-crossed way to sit. He hadn't seen her come. Had the song really had so much influence on him?

"I'm not interested in talking," he told her, annoyed. He was afraid she might be a fangirl, even though Tyson, Max and the others had tried not to get them in to the party. He didn't like fangirls. They believed they loved him without even knowing him, as if it could happen like that. There was love at first sight, some said, but that he didn't believe either. He hadn't ever been in love, as far as he could remember.

She opened her eyes, some lightbrown eyes. They nearly had Reis' golden eyes, though had more of an amberish colour. "Me neither," she said, and he knew she didn't lie. Suddenly, he actually wanted to talk with her. By saying that, she had proved her not being a fangirl or any of the other loud, annoying people. He liked Tyson, but only because Tyson was a worthy rival and had learned him so many things. In the beginning, he had hated that guy. In nearly a year, he had felt nothing but hate, irritation and anger towards him, only helping when his own titles had been threatened by one of the teams' members.

But this girl seemed to be... Not a soulmate, that sounded wrong. As if they were close. She just had the mindset that made him able to like her a little more in the beginning of their friendship than most other people. "Good," he simply answered, knowing his plan for the night had been changed. He had found something interesting. Sad, that he had decided not to take anything he could drink with him.

"Who are you?" she then asked, seemingly to be just as interested in him as he was in her.

"Don't you watch beyblade?" he answered by asking.

"Of course, I have classmates in the championships. But you can't be Kai. He left the team. Three times."

"Thanks for your observation." Her interest in her had dropped. Poking to his weak spot of being... not totally trustworthy. He was hating himself... for two of the times at least. The second time he left, he actually had been the last one to do so. "Now, please move over to the far corner of the room."

She was silent some time. "So you _are_ Kai? Cool. Thought you had left once again." Okay, then, she might not be a total disaster. "Where are you going to school?"

"The same as Tyson and Max, just one class above. Only part-time, though, as a private teacher is supposed to teach me more." And she now knew more about him than anyone of the other. The others simply thought that he skipped the classes he did not like. How long had they been talking? Five minutes?

"Why not only do the private-thing?" she asked, looking confused.

"My weak try to be social. Now, what is your name? I assume that you are Tysons' and Max' classmate."

"I am. You're just as sharp as I thought." She smiled, suddenly beginning to act weird. She tried to hide her face behind her lightbrown hair, which was a few nuances darker than her brown ambereyes. "My name is Annabella. Please just say Anna." Oh, so she just didn't like her name? Sad. He liked it.

"Do you have anything to drink? Didn't think I should stay such a long time, so I didn't think I needed anything." He probably wouldn't have given her any, if she had asked him. Or, maybe he would, because she was so not annoying. He wasn't sure.

"Of course," she said, smiling happily and gave him a can of beer. "I have borrowed some from my dad. I'm not fond of beer, but on the other hand, I'm broke and doesn't work, so I'm just happy he gives me any."

"It's alright, I don't mind beer." He looked down the plastic bag she had beside the couch. There was enough beer to kill a horse. Either her father was a very sharing alcoholic, or he simply had a lot of room for his beer. It seemed like a nice man, no matter if he drank to much or not. He looked up at her and and let her see just the sligtest smile. The first he let her see. "Thank you, Annabella."

She shot him a deadglare, but he had already opened the beer and began to drink. As he lowered the beer can, it was empty. No one should say he couldn't drink. Around them and their chat, the party began to roll and the first less-shy people had found room for dancing.

*** The other end of the party ***

"So he _do _drink?" Kenny mumbled, spying on Kai and Anna.

"Yeah, unlike someone else," Tyson said, forcing a can into the four-eyed's hand. "Here, begin now." He had only had a little to drink, and wasn't done drinking yet.

"But I don't want to," Kenny complained, before sipping at the can. Hillary stood two meters from them. But she didn't look at them or come to Kennys defence, was simply staring horrified at Kai and Anna. Bad timing with the crush-thing, now when he seemed to have found a girl he could actually talk to.

"Who's that girl?" Dachi got over to them and asked, watching the girl cautiously. He seemed to have had some drinks too, even though he was the youngest at the party.

"A girl from our class," Hillary answered, getting more pissed.

"She is like a female Kai, but talks and smiles a lot more," Tyson continued. "Though she normally isn't for the party-stuff."

Without a word, Hillary began to walk over towards the two, and hearing them actually being able to small talk without pause made her even more horrified. "Hey, Kai," she said, and he looked up at her, still soaking wet all over. That gave her an idea to get her at least the slightest bit away from this new rival. "Just thought, you could borrow some clothes from Max. It's not healthy."

Why was everything about health? Couldn't he eat what he wanted or wear what he wanted? He didn't show he his annoyance, and didn't argue. It was the best, in the end. He knew that. He wasn't stupid. "Hn." He rose from the sofa and walked over towards Max' room. Max came as soon as he saw it, even though he had been dancing with some girls. "I'll borrow your clothes," he informed, and Max simply smiled and nodded.

"I have some that's too big for me. They are probably more your style." He went down in some old drawers that seemed not to be used and pulled out some black clothes. "Here, I hope they fit."

"Hn."

"Are you enjoying the party?"

"Hn," Kai answered. "Now, get out, I have to change."

"Sure," Max said, smiling as he got down to the party again. He pushed himself over to the others. "In the end, I think he actually like this party." That was something new. And it made him happy. Very happy.

As soon as Kai got down, he went over to the couch. "Can I borrow your plastic bag?" he asked Annabella, but didn't wait for her to approve. He took out all her beers and put it on the table. "If it's a problem, I'll drink whatever you would have to take with you home again." He stuffed the wet clothes down in the bag and was about to sit down again, Hillary was there.

"Wouldn't you like to dance with me?" she asked.

"No." Why say more than needed? He wasn't going to.

"Oh, come on, Kai," Anna dropped in, rose from the couch and pushed him over in Hillarys arms.

Anna smirked.

Hillary froze.

Kai glared.

"Thank you, Annabella," he grumbled and pushed himself away. The smirk disappeared, and now the two silent ones glared at each other.

"Stop calling me that," she grumbled and pulled him out on the dance floor with him and Hillary. She began to dance, something she had never done before. Hillary laughed and began to dance too, trapping Kai between them.

"I'm not going to. It _is_ your name, afterall," he said, trying to glare at both at the same time. He was beginning to get pissed now. Both names would go in his deathnote when he got home.

"Oh, come on," Anna said, smiling wide. He didn't move, while they seemed to enjoy it big time. They were silent, the two girls panting and Kai trying to find a way out. But people was so close to eachother that he couldn't get away. At least here, the girls made sure not to touch him.

But as they panted heavier, and Anna actually was about to give up and go back, slain because she hadn't been able to get him to dance, Kai sighed. "Give me a beer, then I'll try," he said, looking at them both with something that looked like disgust. "Or, make it three, please, Annabella." She glared at him again, but went back to the couch, only to see Kai put up five fingers. Five beers? He seriously seemed not to like the dancething. Maybe they were very cruel to him right now.

She got back with the beers. They were still in the middle of the dancefloor, bodies around them jumping and swaying like there was no tomorrow. Kai seemed so not fitted in. The tree, standing stiffly, all alone, in the field of swaying grass. "Here," she sad, smiling. He simply glared, and to a straw down in the beer can. Where he had got it, she didn't know, but it surely would help him to get drunk enough to loose his control.

This was his first time to drink with people. Really drink with people. Normally, he was alone, and he had found out that was what he preferred. Five beers later and a straw later, he sighed and closed his eyes, slowly rocking to the beat. He breathed a few times, feeling the world become lighter and easier to live in. Then, violet eyes opened, and he began dancing, wilder, faster, stronger than anyone around him.

The last thing he would remember was leaning in and touching the two girls that sealed him from the crowd around them. How he had gotten home, how he had gotten his wet clothes with him, what he had done afterwards, he did not know. How much more he had to drink, he did not know either. It all was left to the blurred memory of them, dancing with the old Black Eyed Peas 'My Humps' so loud that their heads nearly got blown off.

* * *

Staring at the ceiling, Kai laid in his own bet. With a sigh, he turned his gaze out the window, not knowing what he was supposed to do. It was the 15th November, the weather seemed to get more icy, though it was nothing of what he had been through in the Russian winter. The violet eyes were unfocused, as he was lost in thoughts. And it was not about last night and what he didn't remember.

Kai turned around with a moan to the light headache he had, got dressed in the now dry clothes and left his home. Or his grandfather's summerhouse. They didn't have to know. The mood was spoiled anyway, after Rei left. The party had made them forget him for a while, but now, they would think about him again Oh, and there was the fact that Rei weren't there, and he was a quite... good guy. Not one of the loud idiots that, in the end, Kai felt was his friends. Without Rei, the birthday-party was going to be a disaster, as the ones to plan everything was left as Tyson, Max and Daichi. They may be able to rock the house, but it would ruin his mood to do that on the 'special day'. Well, at least if Hillary didn't get into it, as she would listen more to his wishes. Kenny would be left behind, no one really listening to him in that matter.

To further convince him to the fact that it wouldn't be a good idea was the thing with only one day being left. They wouldn't have time to plan anything, so they would be more or less angry with him for it.

In the end, it would be better not telling them. In a year, Rei would be back and they would get more time for the planning-thing. He was out too late, and Rei weren't here. Absolutely no reason to bother them with his existence right now.

"Master Kai, would you like a ride?" Saki asked, standing in the door. Kai was in the front of the house, walking towards the street. The rain had left the air clear and fresh, which helped on his hangover. It weren't that bad, compared to him not knowing what the hell he had done most of the night. He was going on the bus, as normal. This time, the fourth, that got him to the school.

"No, Saki, but thanks for asking," he answered. The old man eyed him suspiciously, and Kai lifted an eyebrow. "Did I do something stupid last night while you were watching?" he asked, hoping to get a no. That old man was... well, old.

"No. You just... Was very happy, Master Kai. You was a lot like my own children and their children when they had been out. And since it was you... I'm sorry to say this, Master Kai, but I was surprised and slightly scared. Compared to your normal personality... I just thought you would have a very bad headache today."

"No, thank you for the concern, Saki. I'm fine." Maybe Saki really was on his side? That would be... Surprising, but the butler kind of took care of him, made his favourite food, all those things. Maybe, he wasn't that bad, in the end.

As Kai got to the school, everyone stared at him. Normally, he could walk about nearly unseen, even some of his classmates thinking he had gone back to Russia. It seemed, now, that even those who haven't been at the party knew of him actually dancing. The newest thing in the gossip. 'Mr. Sourpuss' had had a good time.

He walked past Tysons', Hillarys', Kennys' and Max' class, and they all looked at him with so weird smiles, trying to hide their tired eyes and pale party-faces. Well, now he hated this day. It was as if he had done even more than just dance. As if he, in his drunkenness, had done something really stupid. And that was the reason why you didn't get drunk while other people was around. Especially Hillary went totally scarlet... and why the hell did Max too, though he was trying to hide it?!

Oh damn, he thought when he realized the reason. I kissed them. I freaking kissed them! He looked over at Annabella, and to his awe, she was staring too, the blush over her pale cheeks a very scary contrast. Along with a few fucking others. He looked away, over at the others again, and lifted a confused eyebrow. Tyson and Kenny obviously tried not to laugh to hard, but succeeded poorly. God, how stupid are you going to make them?! Kai growled, turned and strode away, unable to hide his anger. Man, he had done a mistake at that party.

He got into his class, only to have everyone staring at him. Oh, he was never going to a party like that ever again. The spotlight was too hot to be set on him. Slowly, with steps falsely secure, the slate sat down at his desk and closed the violet eyes. None of those here had been at the party, so why the hell was every eye still on him? Had tentacles grown out of his forehead? Had he forgotten to put clothes on? Seriously, stop STARING!!

Once again the eyes opened, and with a red gleam of anger in the violet orbs, he stared them down. People looked away, some of them shivering obviously.

The day went on, and he was happy when the third lesson had passed. Now, he should home again and waste his time on the private-teacher, and then the glares that covered his back would disappear. The bell rang, the students roared to life after having died of boredom and Kai rose from his seat as the last to leave. The teacher watched him, she having seen the difference in class too.

"Stop staring," the slate growled, and strode down the hall. He didn't need her to stare at him too. Five hundred students were far more than enough.

* * *

The headache had been gone for an hour when it suddenly came again. Though it was different from anything he had felt. Directly painful. As if someone was putting a needle into his ear. And it had come from one second to another.

But Kai choose not to worry, instead, he went back to watch his private-teacher. But the boring, brown-wearing, bad-smelling man sitting in front of him was massaging the area around his ears and temples. "I'm sorry, but I have to go. I have a headache." Ooooh, nooooooh, losing to hours without smelling your garlicbreath and sweaty, to-weared, brown suit.

Kai didn't complain. He didn't say anything. The teacher was weak, giving in to this mindbreaking numbness in his ear, but without this weakness, Kai wouldn't have known that he wasn't alone with this pain. "Saki?" he asked, waiting for the butler to come. The wrinkled face was twisted in pain, too, but the butler didn't complain. "Would you mind driving me back to school? I've got to meet with my friends there." It was a lie. He had no plans for the day, was probably going to meet with them somewhere and kick their butts for staring at him so weird.

"I thought you didn't like to drive anywhere, Master Kai," the old man said. Normally he wouldn't argue, but he knew Kai didn't like his driver, and that meant for the butler to sit behind the steering wheel. Kai simply looked out the window.

"I don't," he said, but then lifted his hand and pointed at the road. A bus coughed by, so slow that it looked like a bird in a headwind. "But there goes bus four, the one I'm going with, and I'm not having time to wait an hour." Kai rose up just as his private-teachers white car drove out of sight, then turned to see the butler again. "And we are going _now_."

"Okay, Master Kai." Still not arguing. Kai was being cruel to this man, but they seemed both to be in the same pain, so he wasn't going to stop for that reason. It was a mystery, and seemed to be dangerous. "But the others are still in school."

They went out in the car, Kai opening the door _himself_, and then they drove of with a little to much speed. Most other cars had chosen to slow down, the drivers having a hard time concentrating through the pain. One minute before the school, Saki began sniffing. As if he was crying.

"What is it?" Kai demanded, his attempt to be nice failing as he wasn't good with crying people. The thought of the weakness they showed was enough to piss him off. In his head, the pain got worse. As if his eardrums was about to explode. He had had that feeling once, a time when he had been in an air plane when he had a cold. His nose had been totally close at the time they were landing, so he had had the worst plugs in his ears. This was the same feeling. Like the eardrums would give in and the balance was failing.

The car stopped before the school. "I'm having a nosebleed," the old man told as he got out of the car. Kai followed him, nearly failing to keep his balance. What was going on here?!

He began to run towards the school, feeling the fear beginning to take over his actions. Just then, loud thuds was heard. He looked behind him, seeing the butler squirm in cramps. As he looked around him, every adult on the street did the same, until they all simply twitched their fingers, lips or other smaller bodyparts. The violet eyes widened, the muscular arms stiffened. When he looked closer, he saw them all bleeding, either out of their nose, mouths or ears.

Feeling himself lose the control even more, he continued his running. His friends...? What had happened to his friends...?

Out before the class, Kennys body laid. Inside the classrooms, the classrooms was a roar of screams. But right there, the body of Kenny was. Kai had frozen, forgetting the pain in his head. The body... It was twisted in obvious pain before losing its life. Like the body of Saki, Kenny had twisted himself in spasms, but unlike the adult, his nails had dug in to his flesh on the arms, his face, his neck, ripping of his skin. Though, the pool of blood seemed to come from the ears and the mouth, which were still bleeding.

Forcing himself away, Kai cooled himself down and continued to waver towards the classroom. He kept his balance by holding a hand on the wall, too dizzy to stand up by himself and in to much pain to think. Other people came out, including Max and Hillary, but while the others continued to run with the rest of the students from the other classes, Max and Hillary stopped dead before the bloody body for Kennys. "He just... Went out to stop his nosebleed..." Max whispered, eyes wide. Then, he fainted. As did the horrified crowd of halfcrazed teens, one by one began to fall.

Kai only saw the two of them. The others was erased from his pained mind. Tyson...? Then Hillary dropped too, until then staring at the bodies of her friends. His face twitched, his hands gripping everything that could help him to stand. His concious drifted as he wavered on. He had black spots before his eyes, but something he had to do before he stopped. He had to be sure. He had to... He had to get into... That room... To do... Something... He had... Something...

...Something...

...He had...

...To do...

...Before...

...He...

...Died...

He got to the classroom door of the younger teens. Digging his fingernails into the door frame, he stared in with unfocused, violet eyes. Sweating like a pig, he scouted through the blackness that covered his eyes. In the classroom, about a third of the students laid in their own pool of blood.

...But there...

...There...

...Those colours...

...That was him...

...He still stood...

A faint smile twisted the lips of the slate as he began to sink down, his nail ripping off painting on the way. Then, the eyes froze.

...Those colours...

They fell.

Tyson fell too.

He fell.

He _fell_.

...Tyson...

..Tyson...

...Tyson died too...

...Why...?

...Why did all...

...Why did all die...?

...Rei...

...Was Rei dead, too...?

The slate finally closed his eyes.

* * *

He dropped.

Fell into the dark abyss.

The pain stopped.

Just for a moment, the pain stopped.

Then, a headache came.

It wasn't pain.

No, it wasn't pain.

No pain.

No pain in his ears.

There was no pain.

Only a headache.

A smile showed.

No pain.

Only headache.

Slowly, uncertain, he opened his eyes, sure he would see a classroom. But he was in a dark room. Big, black blocks of granite.

No pain.

The slate looked around tiredly, a weird smile still on his face.

Then he froze. The violet eyes widened. Fuck. Fucking fuck, fuck. Fucking hell. Holy shit. Fuck.

Not that bastard. No. He closed his eyes as Boris came closer. No. Not that freak. No! NO!

He opened his eyes again, trying to jump up and hit the violet haired man where it hurt. But he was unable to move, and wasn't even strapped. What about the others? Where was the others? "Wheee-- Whe-whe---" Not even able to speak. Not even able to fucking _speak_. Boris' lips twisted to a smile.

"Hello, Kai. Long time no see." Trying hard to do something, to hit him, to stop that man, Kais body twitched. But he couldn't stop the hand. The hand of a creepy bastard padded the doublecoloured hair. "It's a few days since, but... Well, it's rude not to say anything."

The man's smile went wider.

"Happy birthday, Kai..."

* * *

I loved this chapter ^^ Didn't you? Fantastic chapter.

I'm ready for whatever you want to say. You may ask whatever you want, I might answer. _Might_.

Oh, and I only made Saki come with Kai to make sure you knew that the butler didn't do it ^.^

By the way, Anna might die. She doesn't matter, so she might be one of them who died. She will be one of them who died, unless you argue that in a review. I'm not forcing you to review, I just wanted to warn you.

And Kai doesn't own a deathnote, it just my way of telling the reason why I didn't post it earlier today. I'm reading deathnote xD

The song, by the way, is 'Room of angel'. No idea who made it, but love it.

And do you think I have to go M instead of T at the rate? A lot of scenes like these or worse is coming. And if you want a pairing, you have to review, cause I have none in mind.

Enjoy in joy ^.^


	3. Gone with a cold wind

Hope no one got too annoyed about the last chapters ending. Very clifhangerlooking, but I already killed a lot of people to get you angry at me, so I thought a cliffhanger wouldn't be that bad. And hope you liked the way I wrote the ending (beside the death and blood and confusing happenings, I mean), with the... Well, if you read, you know what I mean, I can't enough english to explain it.

And I have a new warning!: I kill characters ^.^ (Not that one, and you should know by now xD) AND!!! I love unhappy endings. Which means that I do not know if Kai and the Gang or Boris and the Creeps are going to win ^.^ I both hate Boris enough to kill him and let him win (and that means I really, _REALLY _hate him ^.^). And you are very supposed to be confused, cause I don't know why I do it like that either. If I love them, they might win, might die. If I hate them, they might die, might win. And they die if it fits in. And if they simply have no reason to be there. I wonder if anyone else feel like that... But! I'm going to continue now ^.^

Disclaimer: Own nothing. Other than my own characters, and this plot. The other characters and the game Beyblade and most of the other things you can think of is not mine, but I simply wanted to share my... Half-sick, Danish thoughts of a killer-beyblade-fic-thing.

And Tala looks like he did in the first season. Why? I LOVE those blue eyes. He HAS to have blue eyes! Why the hell did they give him freaking VIOLET eyes?! Tala do NOT have violet eyes!!! But, he should be the only person I do that with, the rest looking like they do in G-rev. And I call him Tala Ivanov. Because it's cute, and Valcov is weird put together with Tala (you have to agree! xD Tala Valcov? WTF? xD) and Yuriy would most people not understand. xD Like Yuriy, though, but don't think people would understand... And Yuriy Ivanov is weird too. Yuriy Valcov is even worse.

By the way! (Stop talking, get the fuck on with it -.-!) I see Brooklyn as the image of pure innocence. Not in a childish way, as children are some of the less innocent creatures in the world if you look at what they do to each other when adults seem to be out of sight. Brooklyn simply looks like one of my OC's that I'm not going to use. Even though my OC being a killingmachine, is forced to do his actions because he is too nice to say no and stand up for himself. All my friends see him as my most innocent character, even though he is the one that has killed the most people through his 'life'. Him having killed the most is even scarier, as you most have found out, or will find out, that I value human lives in my stories very poorly. But, well, Brooklyn has the same kind of innocence in his character.

Reviews:

GatewaysDiary: Thank you for reviewing, hope I didn't confuse you to much xD But if you still have questions, I must admit that I am not going to tell. It will come later in the story, slowly to be revealed by them all themselves. And hope not too many of your faves have died already (most of mine have, it's actually seriously depressing! And I'm even supposed to be the one who is in control!). Oh, and like your name, totally poetic (Yeah, I read your profile, amazing thought!).

And one more thing! (This is quite ironic, as I am a mass-my-own-characters-and-characters-I-control-murderer) I am a speaker of peace in this world! And I have only one opinion about that: Pure peace has no guns.

* * *

Gone with a cold wind

* * *

The sound of breathing around him was hollow. He knew other was near, but by him, only darkness was. He could feel empty horror of what he had seen, only empty because earlier experiences had left him with no feelings other than pure hate. What others, his team mates included, tried to hide, he was unable to show. But now, at least two feelings other than hate was clear, making him able to enjoy what little of life that had been left for the four of them. Though, the jealousy didn't help him with that, the very little happiness the others was able to print in is mind did. And the jealousy he only felt when he saw other people, smile and laugh, showing love and sadness. Doing what he couldn't.

He had tried to move a couple of times, and as the tired gaze in the green eyes got more focused and clear as his mind got stronger. Moving had been hard, but after what felt like several hours and probably was ten minutes he had been able to move his fingers. Better, but still slow and slow and _slow_ as annoying hell. He had a headache. A bad headache. And the image of his empty horror appeared again, as his mind began to drift once more.

Spence. That idiotic Spence. Laying there. Bleeding. In the middle of their idiotic kitchen. The white of his green, idiotic eyes turned out. Body cramping in his spasm of dead. Blood flooding out his idiotic ears. As if something had made his brain explode. Or implode. Making his mindless body creep and crawl, damaging it's already dead host. Cause he was obviously dead already when he had fallen. And his idiotic, blond hair coloured red with the blood he poured out of the inside of his head. Laying there, the big body plugged in between the kitchentable and dinnertable, so out of place.

If he remembered right, the emotionless had yelled up to Tala, who was in their bedroom. It had been about 7 in the morning, so Tala had tried to get a little more sleep, though the pain in their heads had woken them all up. They were poor and too young to find good work, had no education, so they were lucky actually to have a place to live. But four people and no room, that was bad. So they shared bedroom, and they all being harsh people, it could be hard to live there. He had just argued with Ian, both being annoyed because of the weird headache, and Ian had left because of his anger, smacking the door behind him. Spencer had been the only one who was so-so nice. He had always been the one of them that was most easy to be around. Whoever had placed them in this darkness would probably not like this fact.

But it wasn't like they didn't like each other. They were family, after going through so hard times together. And no matter how stupid or annoying or how much you wanted to kill them sometimes, family had through the history been the most precious thing. The one thing you felt loyal and proud towards, the ones you would defend, the ones you would kill for.

After idiotic Spencer had fallen and hit the floor in the kitchen, him being the one who was supposed to cook that morning, he himself had turned around, understanding what had happened and the secret to the pain in his ears and head. He had called for Tala, trying to be sure that the redhead was living, as he rushed to the door to find Ian. But as Tala didn't answer, he had hesitated, not knowing if which one could be needing him most. He decided just as it was too late. Just as he walked towards the door to find their youngest member, the world decided to go black.

The emerald eyes studied the patterns of the walls as he waited for his body to begin to move. Black. Big, black block of granite. The walls, the ceiling, probably the floors too. He had walls on three sides, on the last he couldn't see. Under him... A bed. Even at their own home, their bed was better. Softer, evener. His whole body was numb, but that meant nothing, as pain was nothing to him. But he had to move to survive, and surviving was something he and his team mates had learned early in their lives.

Around him, the breathing was still heard. It wasn't uncomfortable. Proved life in this dead darkness. His eyes saw better every moment, but there was still missing one wall. Other people was near him, but if they were enemies, he would first know when it was too late. Though, if they had been enemies, they should have used his weakness of being unable to move. They probably had night cameras, watching everyone wake up in fear, because waking up in unknown places with total darkness made most people crumble in horror. That just meant they had found an unsatisfacting person in him, simply being unable to be afraid of what the hell they were going to do with him. He had tried everything already, and was ready for anything, his lack of emotions being his biggest strength in that matter. Everywhere else, though, not having emotions was hard. But now, he could stay calm and think while these other breathing figures would grow insane with their fear.

The smallest parts reacted well. His arms could stretch and bow a few centimetres too, and his knees moved slightly. His hips slowly reacted, shooting waves of pain through him as he moved them. That only satisfied him, and moving painful parts seemed to be a clever move. The intensity of the pain fell, leaving only light numbness in its tracks.

But he couldn't move his head. Only the eyes moved in his face, and the neck stiff and unmoving too. If it was because of whatever kept him down, or if it simply was his lack of feelings, he couldn't tell. Then, the horror finally fuelled some part in him that he hadn't been in contact with for a long time, like the spark finally connecting with the pool of oil. Sheer willpower got him to his feet, and he jumped to the side, where his eyes had been unable to see a wall in the blackness. Instead, his shoulders felt bars as he collided, the numbness in his body concentrating on those two parts of his body.

The pain, though, still didn't matter to him. It hurt only a very little, which was unsatisfacting for him.

Cold ironbars, so far apart that he could get his head out, to close to each other that the rest of him couldn't follow. Ten centimetres broad, though being oval, making it easier for him to move his head to the side and look into even more blackness. This was endless blackness, a hall so long that he didn't believe he would be able to see the end even if light lit his path.

As the horror and fear in his mind trickered him again, poking to the place in him he actually didn't have, he opened his mouth. "Pppp-... Pppa---..." No voice. No ability to speak. He clenched his teeth as the so well-known hate took over, replacing the fear that had been his powersource until then. "PAPOOOV!!!" He roared, his voice echoing back at him. He turned his head to right, as his roar began to get others to try to move. He could hear it by the breathings around him getting unsteady. But Ian didn't answer, though he was sure that everyone had heard him in this god forfuckingsaken place. Might the youngster be dead too? "IVANOV!!!!" His voice got so high-pitched it actually sounded like the falcon he had in his beyblade. And yet... Echo. Then silence, except for the breathing around him.

But...

Light. Far over at the end of the endless hall, the darkness was broken, chopped into pieces by an unsteady lamp. Even though it was so far away, the weak rays still burned the emeralds. He closed his eyes then tried again, slowly opening the eyes. The light had come all the way over to him, coming from fluorescent-looking lamps over his head. It still hurt his eyes, but he only opened and closed his eyes two more times before forcing them to get used to it.

"IVANO-"

"SHUT. The FUCK. UP!" a voice to his left growled. The authority in the voice, the animalistic roughness, and yet, that soft whistling. Contrasts coming together in that voice of his team mate, making it beautiful, even though he was unable to have an opinion about it. He looked back at his left, his eyes meeting with that very special blue, only one cell between them. They stared at eachother for a moment, Tala with one of his eyes kept shut. A black eye.

"How did you get that?" he asked.

"There are beds in a bedroom, and the frames of the beds are kinda hard," Tala answered, taking a shaking arm up and rubbing the eye. They were the only ones who had gotten themselves enough together to contact on missing friends. They didn't concentrate on others, both thinking about the others' well-being and the team. "I heard you call for me. You scared me to death, you know that? You nearly sounded scared. But when I was about to answer, I fainted. Or, my legs gave in, I felt my head hitting your shitty bed, then... well... the sweet blackness of unconsciousness spared me for the rest of _that _pain. But, for the love of crappy God, Bryan, _why_ use my last name?"

Bryan shrugged, his head tilting, no amusement heard or felt in him as he answered. "For you, at least, I knew it would piss you off. Thinking you would be in about the same state as me, I just wanted to make you so angry you had to shut me up." Most other people would at least have smirked or smiled, or even just letting the corner of the lips lift up a little, but no emotion was shown in the emerald eyes or the face framed but the grey hair.

Tala rolled his eyes, then barred his teeth, looking threatening. His already very wolf-like features made it look convincing in stead of just stupid, like it would have done if any other did that. But not Tala. "Great plan. You stupid idiot. It's so nice to know that your friends are trustworthy." There was something very harsh, not in the words themselves though they were bad too. It was they tone in his voice, so cold, as the clear morning of his homelands' winter. The eyes as frozen lakes, though a volcano of anger was about to slip through the thick ice with its magma. As he stared as the unmoving face of his team mate, he understood what he had said. He looked down, the anger slipping away faster than thin lava, running down the volcano's side. "I'm sorry," he said, looking down at the black blocks that made the floor.

"It doesn't matter," the monotone voice answered, Bryan shifting his weight to a more comfortable position. "And you know that. It doesn't matter what the hell you say."

"That's exactly why it matters, you idiot! Do you know how much it hurt, watching you and know that only thoughts hide behind your eyes? Do you know how painful it is? No, you don't know! You _can't_ know! You exactly can't! We ourselves all live our lives, getting over all the things that happened, while you haven't moved an inch!" Tala stared at him again, pain actually showing in his eyes. He had never said this out loud, afraid finally to hit his team mate under the belt and piss him off. In this confusion in his mind and numbness in his body having torn down his defences. He nearly couldn't even hide his feelings right now.

"I have moved. Though it probably only is the inch you mentioned." It hadn't seemed to hurt him, the words, though around them, other people began to pop out their heads, following this weird conversation, that was entertaining for the unknowing viewer. Until the emotionless bastard destroyed the mood totally. "But it might only be you who live your life, now."

The blue orbs dilated as the redhead slowly understood what he meant. But still, it was unbelievable. Couldn't be true. "Wha..." the captain breathed slowly. "What do you mean?" Others, too, understood, and yes, the amused smiles in this hell had to falter away at the enormous disbelief and insane hurt the redhead let out. His voice shuddered, his face twisted in grief.

"I saw Spence die," Bryan answered, his calm, plain voice a unreal contrast to his teammate's. "That's why I called for you when you were in the bedroom. Ian wasn't in our apartment, but he didn't answer when I called in here, and since my own ears still hurt slightly from the force of my own voice, I don't believe I didn't call loud enough. He aren't here, so he's probably dead too." It was wrong, for anyone to be able to talk like that about the death of his friends, cause surely, that was the people who was dead. Their friends.

Tala stared out in front of him, obviously not believing what he had heard. Looking at the person in the cell in his front without seeing it, he didn't see Hillary wiping her eyes as his sadness became hers. Closing his eyes, he sighed. "Bryan, I'm sorry, but I'll go back to sleep now," he said, so softly that it was nearly unheard. "If this is a bad dream, as I beg of it to be, I will wake up in our bedroom. Surely have a black eye, but at least that means I lose nothing from the state I am in now." The blue-eyeds' head disappeared from between the iron bars.

Bryan looked for his team mate some time. He didn't understand, though he understood that not understanding was wrong. He looked around him, looking into the other cells. In the cell in front of him was that little kid. The one that had fought in the championships at Tysons' side when Kai had left him... He didn't remember the name, but the kid seemed not to have woken up yet, sleeping through the greyhaireds' screaming. In the cell to the left of the kids', beside Hillarys, was a blond boy that Bryan also knew he knew, but who the boy exactly was had slipped through his memory. The only thing Bryan remembered about him was that he was one of the rich boys from the Majestics, and that he had a two-headed dragon for a bitbeast. The blond stared into Talas' cell, him being able to understand the feelings the captain struggled. Bryan moved his head to the right, his eyes searching the cell to the right of the kids'. An unknown girl sat there, her hair blond and eyes brown. He knew he didn't know that one, for sure. Looking to his left again, hoping to see Tala have come out, he saw into the brilliant, blue orbs of nearly same colour as the redhead. That one he remembered, and he would have shivered in the memory of BEGA if it hadn't been for Boris' treatment. The orange hair was as uncontrolled as ever, the eyes a little stiff with confusion and tiredness.

"I know you," a confused voice said, so innocent and pure, so unlike the king of darkness he was. Bryan watched him neutrally, then tilted his head, his eyes showing remorse he only halfway felt. The blues eyes blinked, then looking over the emeraldeyeds' plain face.

"Yeah, you might do, Brooklyn," he answered, really able to feel his feelings towards this guy. But as it was hate and nothing more, it was no big thing. Hate had been his fire for a long time, and though that was long ago, hate would always be his 'best' feeling.

"You was with Tala that time when Garland beat you," Brooklyn stated, watching the others' face to read the plain face for any emotions, but unable to get even a little out of it. This looked like it dazzled him, since the aqua eyes narrowed in curiosity and confusion.

Bryan looked away again, ignoring the orange-haired as he tried to get his surroundings straight. Beside the blond, unknown girl, the basketball player was. This ones' name he knew, though the reason was out of his calculating minds' understanding. But Eddie hadn't moved. He had actually moved so little that the emeraldeyed was sure he was dead too. To his own right side... He couldn't know yet. The person inside had to reveal him- or herself by sticking out the head, and he couldn't ask anyone for that when everyone had trouble in moving and speaking. Maybe he should take a nap too. His head was beginning to get dizzy, so he knew he had probably pushed himself to much. He hadn't done anything too bad, but if that headache they had gotten before getting in here was able to kill people as big as Spence, it wasn't surprising that his body right now had a limit that was under what you would expect from a baby. He sighed, slowly falling back into the darkness of his cell. He laid down on the bed and closed his eyes, the last thing he thought was that his bed in the abbey had been just like this...

* * *

For a long time, Boris had just sat there and stared at him. Kai felt very uncomfortable, but his face was cool and calm. He could feel his body begin to respond, but he did not move, afraid they would restrain him with the chains he had been told was on each side of his 'bed'. Technically, it was just a plate of metal, as black as everything else in there. The description of it seemed known to him, but he didn't know why. Violet eyes studied the ceiling and walls once again, the black stones as cold as the gaze in his eyes. Even though it being stones, it wasn't cold in there. Maybe it was the torches that was placed two on each of the four wall, making them eight in all. Only the sound of the crackling of the living fire was heard, nothing to stop Boris staring at him like he was the candy that the kid was denied to have. Kai just stared up the ceiling with dull eyes, even though the ceiling was so high up he nearly couldn't see it.

"Boris, sir, some of the others are waking up," a man said, and without moving his head, Kai forced his pupils to the painful borders of his eyes to, searching for the host of the unknown voice. He found it, finding the back of a man wearing the same clothes as the guards in the abbey. He rolled his eyes over this as Boris turned away with a smirk. These people had no sense of style if they still used those, but still, he himself still wore the same kinds of clothes as three years ago. The difference was just that his fit him, while the black, nameless guards might scare kids, but not those at his own age. Even younger people than himself would think them idiots. "This one is quite special, unlike the others that has woken up. He doesn't cry, doesn't seem scared. He doesn't react like he is supposed to."

"Ah, no surprise at at all. I know that guy. I had him from when he was a little boy, until _someone_ took my power away from him. Look at his face. You see no emotion at all, and that because he doesn't feel it at all. It seems he haven't destroyed what I made him, and that would have been a shame. Him and his team mates all was made perfect, but it was destroyed once, so I lost them and had to find something else." Boris smirked even wider. Kai tried to figure out who they were talking about. He found himself able to turn both head and body now, but only turned the head the slightest bit, still acting like he was nearly unable to move at all. Screens. From wall to wall in four rows, on all sides. The only gap there was, was a door that probably led to the rooms they were watching.

"Oh, the room two to his left! Someone else is actually trying to move too." The guard rolled his chair over to another screen left of the one they had watched until then. Kai then realized that all the three lowest rows of screens was watching through the darkness. The top screens was black. Who ever it was that sat in those rooms the screens watched sat in total darkness. But he couldn't see the lower screens clear enough to actually understand what they were looking at.

"Oh, him I know too," Boris said. "It's Tala. He's no real problem. He has great powers, but as long as he is following this path he has chosen, he can't do anything against us and can't use those powers for his advantage. His powers lays in being ruthless, but since he left the abbey, he has chosen to care and look out for others. Still being strong, though, this weakness was shown in the championships, where his standards was low for his skill-level, and when he lost against one of my other pawns in BEGA. Only if we can get him back on track will he be anything at all." Boris sighed, as if it actually meant something to him. "But the kid has always had a strong mind. He might believe so much in this new path that he don't want to get back to us, or simply still hate me to much to listen. But he could be an effective general or other places for a leader. He's a demon in an angels body. Don't underestimate him for his weaknesses."

The only one underestimating his abilities is you, Boris, Kai said in his mind, once again looking up towards the ceiling. The guard was silent, then his curiosity deceived him. "What about the other one?" he asked, Kai listening intensely. They seemed to have forgotten about him for now, and he had to gather information on their flaws now, if he was able to. "If you hope this Tala gets a good leader, have you plans for the other?"

"No. He is a very strong pawn, and nothing more. A nonefeeling person can't lead anyone, as a leader has to have an opinion about things. You can think of him as a robot or a computer made of flesh and blood. If a computer gets the order to calculate a big mathematic equation, the computer does it as good as its abilities let it. If Bryan gets an order to injure a person deadly, he will do it as good as he can. Through it, he will, like the computer does in those few seconds it takes for it to find the answer to the equation, consider many possibilities. Would it be okay to cut of the hand? Could it be that someone should use that hand later? Would the victim need his ear in the future? Should he use time and starve the person to a deadly state, or do it fast with a knife to the kidney? When I chose Bryan to come and forfill this role of being the ultimate robot, I chose a five-year old genius kid with a single mother. His mind being able to take the right choices in the future, though the insecurity the single mothers' fight with his own dad had put in the kid making him an easy target to get to and kill the emotions off." Kai couldn't determine if the guard might had wanted to undo his question. The information they got made Boris sound like an even worse maniac than he, in the end, was. And that was bad.

"Then... What about this Tala-figure" the guard though still had the courage to ask. Kai suppressed a sigh, as this man in the office chair in front of the screens seemed to be quite an idiot. Boris laughed slightly, but before he could answer, a voice Kai actually knew roared out in the room. Or, it was more like a scream, yet no emotion could be traced in the echo, no fear, nothing. It seemed more like the scream of a falcon than the roar of a human.

"PAPOOOOV! IVANOV!!"

Even in here, the words was so loud it hurt Kais' ears. That Bryan had power in his voice, maybe even authority and leaderability, but... Well, what Boris had said made sense. A person that did not feel couldn't lead. Lines that was not supposed to could be crossed, or he could be too kind in his attempts to understand others, being unable to get respect. It might end good, but a lot of the things that had to be done as a leader had to do with feeling. Probably the reason why Tala still had most of his feelings in check, and might get controlled by them sometimes.

"Turn on the lights so we can see him," Boris said. The guard flipped a switch on the control panel in front of him, and the black screens in the top row turned light. It looked like a hall with holes in the walls on each side, every one of the screens looked like halls. But from the place he laid, he couldn't be sure. He had to get closer, just like with the lower screens. But in the upper screens, he was at least able to get a slight idea of what he was looking at.

"IVANO-"

"Shut. The fuck. Up." That was still loud, but not nearly the power that Bryan had. Yet, Talas' authority was clear, no matter the strength of his voice. Boris and the guard seemed totally concentrated by the two teens and their chat. From his place a couple of feet away from the two, Kai could only hear a little of the conversation the two boys seemed to have.

Kai looked towards the door. He could escape now, where his keepers wasn't looking. He had been able to do this for a long time, but had no information on them that could help him. It would also be good to know exactly what that creep had done, since so many had ended up dying. He couldn't remember whether or not Tyson had fallen when he got to the classroom. But the relief he remembered hopefully meant that the kid might still be alive, that he had only been out for an amount of time like Bryan, Tala and Kai himself seemed to have. Though, from the ache in his stomach, the massive hunger, it seemed to be quite a long time they had been out, after all.

Slowly, making sure not to make one little noise, Kai sat up on the metalplate. He had to try to get out, even though he didn't have the information that could help him to survive whatever it was he would see out there. If the Russians was here, he might as well be in Egypt as in Greenland. And he could be in a city or in the middle of that nowhere everyone was talking about. The only difference it would make between these two things would probably be that there was food in the stores, cause if he was right, there was no adults left.

Taking a few steps towards the door, he stopped as Boris suddenly seemed to remember him. Slowly, the purplehaired creep turned around. "So, Kai, it seems you are yourself again. Now, please go back to the board and be seated as the good boy you once was, okay?" The man talked to him as if he was a stupid, little kid. How annoying. Turning his head, Kai looked at the man with the same old, cold face he had learned to use. "Come, come, now, we don't have all day. Oh, and record there conversation, please," he continued to the guard. Was this supposed to convince him to go back? It didn't feel true. Wasn't right. Boris was not that stupid. He would know it would piss Kai off to be talked to like that.

Tryingly, Kai took a few steps over towards the board. Not what Boris had expected, seeing how the eyes dilated, and Kai smirked. "Sorry, you old man," he said, Boris not fast enough to react to Kai suddenly running through the door because of the surprise over Kais reaction. Slamming the door open, Kai surprised two guards that was supposed to take him as Boris signalled them his attempt to escape. They jumped in surprise as the phoenix zig-zagged between them, running down a hall of more big, black blocks and flaming torches.

"GET HIM!" Boris growled from inside the room, making the guards finally react. Synchronized as the waves, the two men shot down the hall, slowly shortening the distance between themselves and the exhausted teen, that turned at the end of the hall. Still breathing nearly normal, Kai felt his head grow lighter and his body grow slower from the lack of nutrition, but he refused to stop. He would see how long he could get before they caught him, maybe even be able to get out of this stinking place. "STOP HIM!" He couldn't hear if it was Boris or one of the guards, but it didn't matter. The sound of footsteps came towards him from the left, and just as three other guards made themselves ready to turn, he spun out to the right.

They skidded to a halt, then ran up towards him again, and soon they had gotten him. Damn lack of food, if he hadn't been so exhausted, he would have come out, he was sure. Still not ready to give up, he tried to kick the closest guard. It didn't succeed, and they took his arms to his back and locked them, bending him slightly forward. He glared at them with his cold eyes, but it didn't matter much to them. They just pushed him him in front of them and forced him into the room, where a really pissed Boris stood.

"On the board. Use the chains. Understood?" Boris said in a cold voice. The guards nodded, Kai again beginning to struggle when he saw the chains. But there were five guards now, and he wasn't desperate enough to be able to get them off him. If he was, he wouldn't have been caught in the first place. "So, Kai, what would you have done if you had gotten out?" Boris asked as Kai once again laid on the board, this time strapped to it.

"Since I do not know where I am, I can't answer," Kai said, hoping Boris would reveal his location. It didn't succeed, but that was also far to much to expect from that freak. Sighing in defeat, Kai finally laid his head back too. Boris wouldn't tell him anything he wasn't supposed to know from now on, since he was awake enough to try and escape. But he had to try, he really had! "Are you going to tell me what happened, or am I going to be here without knowing anything?"

"That would be rude of us, since you are our guest of honour," Boris said, making Kai raise an eyebrow.

"Guest?"

"Yes, of course. Like in the abbey, we can't have our leaders' grandson trapped in such a place. When you are trained and ready, you will join you grandfather and lead our organization as the Prince of the Earth." Boris smiled. "But then, we have to know you won't do anything stupid. That's the only reason for you to wake up here instead of in your grandfathers' mansion, so you just have to cooperate, then you will get to better conditions."

"So you are still following my maniac of a grandfather?" Kai asked, ignoring Boris' attempt to persuade him. He wasn't really interested in 'better places'. He was interested in getting out of his grandfathers' claws, and get a lot of people with him. Besides, it was too low for him to follow the rules of a reptile like like Voltaire and give him the satisfaction to see his grandson creep and crawl for him.

"Voltaire is a great man. He gave me permission to try to get power over the world by myself, so I started BEGA while he still was in prison for his actions in the abbey. When he got out early because of his age and good behaviour, he contacted me again with a new plan. The ones destroying our plans was adults, though they used you and your 'Bladebreakers' to get to us. So, if we removed every adult in this world, we could make the kids as we wanted to. One of our scientists found the method."

"But you won't tell me what your method is. So, what about telling me why Kenny ended up dying, even though he was younger than me? And I'm sixteen, do I not count as an adult?" Maybe I can make him slip, Kai thought, though he didn't believe it was going to happen. Boris was probably very cautious. But he already knew they watched the others, and that wherever they were, they could talk to each others. And he knew that Boris recorded every sound they made. That meant a lot, if he should help the others escape. Then, it was just how they got out of their cells or rooms or whatever they were trapped in.

"Well, first, you are seventeen. You slept through your whole birthday, and a little more, so it's the 18th today." That meant over two days without food. Then he could understand why his body was so exhausted, and he got even proud of being able to run so long. "To put it simple, we have a device that tunes in on the human brain and... Well, force it to overheat. But, the method is uncertain. Everyone over 19 dies, but from 19 years old to 12 years old, nothing is certain. Until now, we have been unable to find a pattern in who dies and who survives in the ages in between those. The adults dies first as an outcome of the brain beginning to bleed from the attack. About ten minutes after the adults die, the child's brain gets so stressed out that it forces the kid to pass out to protect it from overheating, which would mean that the kid would have died." Boris smiled. "I do not have an answer to your question, but I guess that you don't count as an adult just yet, since you ended up surviving." Trying to annoy Kai, it didn't succeed. Kai tried to cross his arms, a moment forgetting himself being chained to the uncomfortable 'bed'. The hands weren't even able to reach each other.

"That means you set my life on jeopardy," Kai said, fighting the chains for a moment, before he once again relaxed.

"Maybe, but as a Hiwatari, we trusted you to be strong enough. We have divided the kids so the most troublesome, eldest teens are in here, unable to get the younger spoiled with the mindset they have learned from their parents. The weakest that we can't use are going to be executed, of course. Those who have no talent in blading, we will use to get food by farming or breeding. We make sure everyone in this world is going to have a purpose. Of course, keeping them in cells like this is only to make sure that they do not do stupid things. We will make a new world!"

"Executing people like cows, only giving space for the strong?" The slate couldn't help but laugh. "You plan is to use the young people to take over the world?" Kai rolled his eyes. "You remind me of Hitler and the Hitler Youth in soo many ways. As Russians, we are supposed to hate that psychopath, and yet you have used his methods with manipulating the youngsters to your side all your life and your visions and principles looks like his. You are sick, Boris."

"Well, your grandfather have done the same, you know!" Boris snarled. Seemed someone had found a good pressure point. Kai smirked, suddenly getting the upper hand even though he was the one tied to a metalplate.

"Yeah, but my grandfather is Japanese, and since Japan was with Hitler in the war, he is just the slightest bit less sick in his head for following this Nazi-path you two have chosen together." The look on Boris' face was priceless. He turned from red to blue in his anger, his facecolour standing well together with the purple hair, his eyes seeming ready to burst out of his head. "There is also the fact that I do not like my grandfather and cares shit about his doings."

"Shut up, you little son of a bitch!" he yelled, slapping Kai in the face.

"As far as I remember, the bitch you are talking about is your own sister, Boris," Kai said, his face cold with anger and hatred. The creep had slapped him. He couldn't let that go unpunished, but since he had no change of doing violence, words was all he had. "And as far as I remember, you let Voltaire kill that bitch, so you shut your mouth and keep you creepy hands of me. And if you slap me again, I'm going to find a way to stop you from breathing, you understand that?" He was so serious, so _Kai_, that it was a threat that felt real. Boris backed away for a moment, then getting back his calm and closed his eyes.

"I think our nice, little chit-chat is over," the man said, leaning against the panel that controlled the screens behind him. He looked to the guards standing on the outside of the door, again ready to catch him if he tried to escape again. "Take him to his cell." The guards came in, beginning to take the chains of. But the guard by the screens cleared his throat, making everyone but Kai look at him. Kai, on the other hand, watched the key one of the guards had in his hands, wondering if he was able to reach it. He wasn't, he found out, sighing as he, too, looked at the guard in the office chair.

"Boris, sir, you nearly forgot something important," the guard told, laying a small thing about the size of a chip in the hand of Boris. Not even having watched it for two seconds, Kai recognized it. His cool, calm face faltered, suddenly slinging himself hard towards the guards. Luckily for them, the chains forced him to stay away as Boris turned to him, once again smirking. He had the upper hand again, making Kai so filled with emotions that it all spilled out on the floor between them.

"How did you get that?!" Kai yelled, struggling wild against the chains as anger, hate, despair, it all tore him up and away. His also chained legs kicked out towards Boris, only inches away from hitting the hated man. "Drop it, you FREAK! GO AWAY WITH YOU!" Blood began to pour down his wrists at the chains cut through his skin, the guards beginning to react, trying to pull him down. He didn't listen to them, didn't stop even as the two men struggled with him.

"Get a needle!" one of them called, and the guard by the screens rose and found a needle in a drawer. Taking some fluid in it from a bottle, the man turned again and gave it to the man. As one of them forced himself on-top of the outraged Kai to hold him still, the other took the needle into his neck, making the anaesthetic work even faster. As the world toned black, Boris smiled to him.

"Just remember to behave, or you know what happens," the purplehaired said as the body of the slate got more and more relaxed. He held the chip sized thing mockingly near Kais' head, but already was he unable to lift his hands. "Remember to give him food when he wakes up," Boris told the guards just as Kai floated in the darkness of unconsciousness for the second time that day.

* * *

The smell of food. Should he open his eyes now? Someone was talking... The voice seemed familiar. In the end, opening eyes was troublesome. Sure, he had to, eventually, but he had also learned that you should appreciate the time you actually are given to sleep. The footsteps got closer, and so did that familiar voice. Too familiar. I was something dark. Or, he assumed it to be dark, as this wasn't much of a cheery subject in the others conversation. Or hadn't been, as two of them must be dead.

Deciding he couldn't continue to have his eyes closed, the bright emerald once again saw the light of the fluorescent-lighted hall. The eyes seeking the host of the voice once again found way around in the cell. There was a table in rough wood with a uncomfortable-looking chair in front, for whatever reason he had to have such pieces of furniture in here. The the corner, his toilet stood, nicely out in the open so that everyone was able to follow him doing his thing. And then, of course, there was his bed, hard and uncomfortable. How he even had been able to sleep on it he couldn't understand, but whatever the reason, he didn't believe it would happen again next time he laid down to sleep.

Footsteps got closer. That voice... Oh, so it was just Boris?

Bryan turned his head, listening to what he had to say. "So what is your name?" Boris asked, getting an answer. This one was a guy, named Andrew. "Where are you from?" Boris then asked, once again getting an answer. It seemed that he was just taking a round to check who he had caught. The guy was from Japan, the same city as Kai, Tyson and Max had lived in. Maybe they knew him? Maybe. Wonder if the four former Bladebreakers still lived... "Al right, thanks for cooperating. Here is your food." So answering questions was the same as cooperating? Boris was wrong, but it could be that this way to easily satisfy him could make the teens more secure in his presence.

Bryan sighed and leaned against the wall sitting on the bed. Boris worked slowly, and the falcons' stomach was hissing to get some food. It was probably a part of Boris' plan, showing the control he had over them. Seemed like one of his ways to force his power upon them, though it was different, much different, than what Bryan had experienced. It was probably the age that made the difference. A teenager reacted much different on threats than kids, teenagers already having a picture or image of life and justice and right and wrong. He should be the kids' scary father, that had his whip if you disobeyed, but who could be very proud if you did good. The teens, he probably had thought that he had to get 'best friends' with.

"Tala. _Tala_." Both Bryan and Tala woke up at Boris' words, one from his thoughts, the other from his nap. "Good. You're awake. Want some food, my little dog?" Oh, how nice of you to tease. Tala loves it when you do that, Bryan thought, knowing that not even the fact that he stood in front of his childhoodnightmare, Boris, would take Tala out. He didn't let anyone or anything push him down, no matter if it was the czar that had come back from the dead.

"Oh, so it's you who is behind these cells? Why am I not surprised?" Bryan heard Tala say, his voice thrillingly cool. He knew the blues gaze would be icecold, but wasn't there to sit and watch him as he stabbed Boris with his eyes. "Both your ugly style and your terrible stench is all over the place. Hope you have found some new, better guards, cause you are my primary objective."

"You are sweet, as always, Tala," Boris said, and Bryan heard his voice tremble with beginning anger. The only thing that kept him from the bars to watch the show was his hunger, that got more sickly and painful for every second that Boris took his time with the others.

"I wish I could say the same about you, Boris, but you have never been sweet. Why start now? And, well, you aren't quite starting anyway, so there is nothing nice to say to you and your freaky gang. You can do whatever you want, but I'm not going to take orders from you, Boris. Starve me, torture me. You have nothing new to show me, and I know what I'm capable of handling. But my life is in your hands. If you do not give me food now, you know I will die. It's your call, and it doesn't matter to me. As long as we're in here, none of us lives." You said it, Captain. The echo of an unknown warmth he didn't remember and the shadow of a smile he couldn't make. Pride, that was what felt for his redheaded captain. And by the way the purblehaired breathed, the greyhaired could tell that Tala had managed to tick their former torturer off very badly.

"Give him some food and take him out to get whipped when he has eaten. You are lucky, Tala, that I still believe I can use you. If you stop your stupid acting, you will be placed high in the ranks, but I do not want to break yo-"

From the sound Tala made, he seemed to have spat on the floor. "'I do not want to break you'. You are the one to stop your stupid acting, Boris. There is nothing you love more than to break the minds and souls of your underlings. The others in here will know that soon. I'm not going to do even one little thing that will please you. No, I'm going to get out of here, and I'm going to fight off the hold you have gotten on the world. You never learn that I'm not interested, do you?"

"Give him the food, whip him and throw him back in, gagged, so we can show everyone what happens if your mouth is foul. I'm going to talk with him, alone, tomorrow night. Understood?!" Oh, that Tala, he really know what to say. Bryan could know feel the smile, inside of him, so pure. But he couldn't make it show, and he could keep a hold of the feeling. Soon, it was again the nothingness, the darkness, that ruled in his heart and stomach. It was all-eating, tearing away every little chance he got to feel more than the raging flame of lightningblue hate that drew the darkness away to let him kill whoever that was in the way of his orders. Only to lay down and shimmer, letting the darkness reign until next kill.

Though Tala snorted, Boris wisely chose to ignore him. Instead, Boris turned around, facing Hillary, while one of the guards that followed Boris through the halls put a dish with food in to Talas' cell. "Oh, yeah, I remember you too, Hillay," he said, his voice calm again. For a moment, the girl seemed ready to fight him back with her words, but then ended up being too afraid of getting beaten up. Unlike Tala, she had never felt a whip before, and she didn't want to. "You are with Tyson, if I haven't forgotten. The same age as him? Good. But you don't beyblade? Oh, well, you'll learn."

Turning around, Boris faced Brooklyn in his cell beside Bryan. "So, Brooklyn, you survived too?"

"Yeah," the calm, sensitive voice answered. No hate, no anger, nor disgust, showed in that voice.

"That's a relief. Without your skills in blading, I would be having a lot of trouble."

"Oh, please, don't say that, I know it wouldn't really make a difference to you. Also, I chose to stop blading. I cause way to much trouble in the beystadium."

"But, Brooklyn, that's such a waste of talent!" Boris said accusingly, and footsteps was heard as Brooklyn walked over to the bars, closer to Boris.

"I know you think that, but I don't have the spirit of a blader like the others do. Try to understand if you want." Brooklyn seemed neither to fear or hate Boris, how weird that would be when Boris was the one to kill of his friends, put him into a cell and have misused him in the past. But it didn't seem that Brooklyn had ever been able to find friends, as far as Bryan had understood about him. Maybe he hadn't lost anything else than his freedom by being put in here. "But I have a request I hope you will respect, if you aren't too angry at me. Is there any change that you could move me to a cell with a window?"

"Always going on about your little nature, aren't you, Brooklyn? Well, I can't transfer you to anywhere with a window, since we do not have any in the building. And you won't get any food unless you begin to beyblade again."

"I want Tyson around."

"What?"

"I want Tyson around when I beyblade. Or Kai. By the way, I don't have my blade with me, since I quit. You would have to replace it. What you replace it to doesn't matter to me, it won't make much of a difference."

"You are as confident as ever. So do you still have...?"

"Yes, Zeus is right here. Unlike a blade, you do not throw a friend out as trash. I'm always walking around with him." Oh, so he had a friend? Though Zeus was a quite odd name for the nonefeeling boy to handle. Bryan jumped of the bed and walked to the bars, his pale hands clenching the cold, black iron. He could see the orangehaired hold something for Boris to see. A chipsized, black thing. Friends with a bitbeast. Though Bryan knew most people felt like that, it seemed stupid to him that this guy talked like that. Might be because it was obvious that that thing was the only friend he had. Even Bryan, as cold and indifferent he was, had more friends than that aqua-eyed purity of a teeenager.

"That's good. We'll have your new blade ready for you tomorrow. I'm just not certain about letting one of those two be there when you beyblade. What is the reason?"

"Well, I stopped blading because I was afraid of losing control again, so it would be stupid not to have one of the only people that has ever been able to beat me near, so that they could stop me from doing stupid things again, don't you agree? I am not going to begin blading again, if I risk to damage the people around me." Bryan stepped back from the bars to his cell, sighing. His new neighbour seemed to be as much a 'one of a kind' as he had thought. But from what he had heard, it was exactly what this guy was. Hopefully, he wouldn't talk to much to anyone...

"And it can't be any other that can beat you be near?"

"No one else can beat me. The skill-level of the worlds other bladers don't change just because I'm out for a couple of months. Those two are special, and even though Kai didn't beat me when I was out of control, I know he can."

Sure that the citrinehaired, apatite-eyed idiot would get his butt kicked for his audacity. Soon, the emeraldeyed waited Boris' anger to roar out and learn this white, dark angel his place in the black hell Boris had made here. But it didn't happen. In the genius mind of the greyhaired teen, it didn't make any sense. "I'm glad you are willing to cooperate," was all the man said before turning to the blond kid. "Ah, Enrique, you're here? I had heard everyone from the Majestics had died... What a pity that was." Bryan knew now that Boris truly was pissed off by the resistance he had met from the Captain of the Blitzkrieg Boys and his former secret weapon. Why he didn't take it out on Brooklyn, Bryan didn't know, but the reason must be good. How temperamental and sick Boris was, he rarely did anything without a good reason.

"I am aware of their death, thank you, Boris," the blond boy said politely. His voice trembled slightly, telling all that listened closely that this boy was close to break and cry. This made Bryan come to the conclusion that this boy had seen his friends die, just like he himself had. This boy, having feelings, was having a very hard time.

"Oh, you are?" Boris said, his tone polite, his words mocking. Yeah, he was absolutely, truly pissed, that creep was. And the innocent victim to feel his rage had ended up being Enrique, and now Bryan heard it, the greyhaired teen had found out he did know the name. Unlike what he had thought, as he had never been interested in those rich punks. "How come you know, Enrique?"

"We had all chosen to eat dinner at Roberts," the Italian boy said, the trembling in the voice getting more clear. "It got late, so we slept by him in Germany. About five or four in the morning, we all woke up from the pain, and then..." His voice trailed off, and the hurt in his mind was clearly seen as tears filled his eyes. Not understanding the pain of losing, the emotions not being a part of his mindset or world, Bryan still knew that tears was a sign of enormous hurt, and losing for some people was the worst mental torture. The fact that he didn't feel didn't leave Bryan out as a not-knowing member of society, though he would never be able to understand what it meant to feel.

Actually considering if he should stand up for the Italian that he didn't even like, he found out it was unnecessary. His strength rising from nowhere, his bravery and pride of a thousand years old family of nobility, Enrique suddenly rose from his seat on the bed, his teary eyes burning as he was the one that stood up for himself. "You was the one who did it, weren't you, Boris?" he said, his voice hot and flaming with the same rage that normally had been seen with his hot-tempered team mate, Johnny McGregor. "I curse you and your followers, Boris!" the boy yelled, and though it was actually totally stupid and idiotic, a weird power itched around the people as the words echoed around them, seeming never to die out.

"I curse you to HELL!!"

No one having seen it, Enrique suddenly had his blade and shooter in hand, the Italian blond lunged it towards the face of the purplehaired man, only to miss by half an inch from the neck. The blade hitting one of the bars, it flew back towards Boris, glowing from the anger of the bitbeast in it's inside. The echo still slamming from wall to wall, Enrique didn't even have to yell orders. The order was in the words that was so powerful that not even Bryans scream for his team mates could come near it.

A guard stepped in between Boris and the blade, stopping it with his armor and trying to grab it in the run, the beyblade flew back to its owner. The blue eyes of the blond glowed with deep hatred while the echo of his curse slowly began to faint. For some reason, Boris smirked. "How noble of you to attack an unprepared enemy." The man turned to the guard that gave out the food. "He is not going to have any. We'll show them what happens if you decide to go against us."

Boris finally turned to Bryan, and looked like he was about to explode with anger. Though Bryan might be more of an easy target than the others, it was still a strong obstacle. Too many dangerous people was placed right around here, but with so many other people in the building, he didn't want to shift their places. Maybe, if he concentrated the opposing people here, he would be able to control them easier.

"Hello, Bryan."

"Good day, eh, Boris?" Bryan said, the words sarcastic, the tone plain with no feeling.

"You are not going to follow me, are you, old friend?"

"I follow my captain to death. That is one of the better things your scientists taught me."

It was fun, how they, unlike the others, conversed without sharing feelings. Though Bryan read irritation in his opponent, none of it was shown in his words.

"Is it to your own or the captains death?"

"Probably only the captains, but since you just showed me you won't kill him, there is no risk of that to happen."

"As sharp as ever. Are you going to oppose me?"

"If captain orders."

"That means you yourself aren't against me?"

"Exactly. I have no opinion about you. Which you already know."

"Give him food. He's no real threat to us."

Bryan had been a far easier opponent to him than any of the others had, but if Boris thought about it, it wasn't surprising. The boys' old training still affected him so much that he couldn't be totally with or against anyone. That also meant Tala, though the boy seemed to live in the thought that he was going to follow the redhead everywhere.

Boris looked at the boy in the cell before him while Bryan was given a dish of food. Then Boris stiffened. The boy was still sleeping, hadn't been away even once. Bryan still didn't remember his name, but just watched the mans' back as he stared at the boy. "How old is he?" Boris asked the guard, who just shrugged. Then, Boris walked closer. "Boy. _Daichi_, wake up!" Daichi? Oh, yeah, that was the name! Bryan just continued to watch, knowing something bad was coming as Daichi opened his eyes. "Age?" Boris demanded while the kid yawned and stretched.

"13," the boy answered, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

Boris turned to the guards. "Mind tell me why the hell he is in this building? He's even younger than Papov is, and yet _you put him here_?! Take him out, now, so we can move him!" Papov? It meant that Ian was alive, Bryan smiled, and that Boris had made a mistake. But Ian was alive. Tala might not have heard, so he had to tell him as soon as Boris had walked away. Right now, Bryan just ate the the sticky porridge that they served them while he watched the scene in front of him.

"Alright, sir!" The guard ran over to the door of the cell fast, then found a key and opened the door. The kid had jumped down the bed and landed on the floor with his bare feet. The guard walked over to him.

"Boris...? BORIS!!! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!!! And... WHERE THE HEELL AM I?!!" The kid ran to the side, him being faster than the guard. He stared at Boris for a short moment, Boris clever enough to run over and close the door.

But he wasn't fast enough, and the kid slipped through the door and began to run as fast as he could. That kid was just as energetic as ever, and didn't even turn around when the guard got out of the cell once again, not seeing the gun the man had in his hand. Not even aiming, the man shot towards the kid, probably believing he wouldn't hit the kid.

He was wrong. From one moment to another, the kid stopped running. He was standing right in front of Tala, only the captain and Hillary totally able to see the look on Daichis face. The bullet had gone all the way through Daichis chest, making the sound of his breathing hard and wet. Slowly, swaying, his redhaired head tilted backwards, the eyes wide and unfocused, showing him already to be dead. The hands, having been balled to fists, losened, the body seeming to move in slow motion. The head that was tilted slightly back continued, slowly making the neck, the shoulders, the whole upper body follow. Then, at a time, so much of the body was backwards, gravity set in. From one moment to another, the dead body fell down as the blood slowly coloured the black floors a dark crimson.

Bryan could see Hillary stare as her old, little, annoying friend died. But it wasn't her pain that radiated from them, and the emerald-eyed then remembered. The kid and his captain had some kind of history, though none of them had ever spoken about it and Tala never had mentioned that little boy. So, when the howl was brought up, Bryan wasn't surprised as he recognized the voice.

"YOU FREAK!!" A big bang was heard when a bowl, just like the one Bryan had in his hand, flew through the air and splintered towards the wall beside the guard, who looked just as shocked about actually killing a person as others was about the killing itself. "BASTARD!! I'LL KILL YOU, I SWEAR!!!" Another thing flew through the air, this time a spoon. "I'LL KILL YOU!!" Bryans redheaded captain finally showed at the bars, his teeth bared in anger, his sapphire orbs burning with Bryans wellknown hatred. "I'LL KILL YOU! JUST YOU WAIT!!!"

The guard was hit by the spoon on his forehead, which caused him to drop the gun. As Bryan knew he hadn't secured the gun after using it, he was ready to hear another bang if the gun should fire. Luckily, it didn't happen, as the nonefeeling boy then might miss a foot if it had. The guard slowly walked towards the dead body of Daichi, which caused the redheads' head to disappear from the bars. Then, moments after, yet another sound of splintering echoed as Tala threw the chair in his cell, making it smash into pieces.

"YOU KEEP AWAY FROM HIM!! YOU FUCKING BASTARD!!!" the red-haired growled, throwing a piece of the chairs legs towards the guard. The man ducked, turned around and fled from the scene he had cause, still with Tala throwing things at him. After having yelled ten more seconds, the captain turned over to cursing in Russian in his wild anger.

All the while, Boris smirked.

* * *

So, hope it's less confusing, whatever had happened in the last chapter! The Blitz-Boys are there now, or at least some of them is! Tala got angry, Bryan have the POW, where the hell is Ian? Oh, well, next sunday ^.^

And I'm sorry for killing that little kid, I seriously love him in his energeticment! And if you review, please critic! I like it if you review, but I can't use anything that doesn't tell me my mistakes xD

BTW!: Annabella is dead ^.^ None of you asked her to survive, and a friend of mine said that she might would get angry at the poor girl if she continued in the story. AND!! Daichi died because it fit. Simple and creepy as that ^.^

Oh well...

Enjoy in joy, if you are able to ^.^ And ask in a review if you want to know if your fave is dead, though I can't promise that I'll answer.


	4. When past is sticky

So, I'm getting a little stressed because I'm on my way to exams and all, so I just... Kinda... Might... Not get a lot of my chapters done before I'm done with the exams, which means I may be forced to set it on kind of a standby and fill in with my other story, which is not as good as this one, but at least I have done four chapters and can follow my personal rules. That's about what I have to say ^.^ On with story!!!

Anyway, what is Voltaires' birthday? It's a serious question ^.^

And! Brooklyn is my light demon ^.^ Just watched his battle in the end with my friend, and it's absolutely fantastic. I can't help love that poor, insane thing xD Though Kai...

Btw (again, stop it) I miss-calculated, so Kai is 16 now and was 15 before his birthday ^^ then, the other ages fit (yeah, he was the only one I did that to, I think xD)

But I have found a pairing (a very weird pairing O.o) all by myself. Still takes requests, as Kai still don't have anyone to be with, but it doesn't matter much to me. It won't effect the story a lot (To me, it doesn't matter if it is man or woman you put him together with, as I know yaoi is pretty popular).

ONE MORE btw: Tala is called Тала in Russian. (It's said about the same way)

Oh, yeah, btw, wrote wrong in the last ending-thing ^^ Bryan has the POV, not POW xD

* * *

When past is sticky

* * *

How annoying. Why the hell didn't they just give up and leave him alone? Instead, they just yelled. They had done that for... It felt like hours, but in this darkness with nothing to tell them the time, he couldn't be sure. "KAAAI!! Answer me, NOW!" He continued to refuse, not even a single word. It would break his stand to Boris. After waking up again from the anaestetic, he had refused to talk or eat. It was a stubborn and painful decision, but he was not going to let them get control over him.

The painful part, of course, wasn't not to talk. He had lived by ignoring people the biggest part of his life out of the abbey. No, the painful thing was the hunger. He was starving so badly that his guts felt like the was going to twist their way out of here. He knew it was very long ago that he had eaten, and he knew he might die, but... "_KAAI!!_" ... some people was worth dying from. Boris was one of them. His grandfather another.

"Kai, what the hell did that creep do to you?!" Just leave me alone for once.

"He won't tell you, or he would have already..." A clever one, are we, blondie?

"Don't say that! _Kai_, answer me! _KAAAAI!!_" As stubborn as ever.

The food sat on his table, a chair in front of it, and the bed in the corner. He had woken up on it, finding it very hard and uneven, but nothing he was unable to handle. The toilet was in the other corner that didn't edge up to the ironbars, but unlike what he had seen the others had, he had a curtain to get himself some privacy. Nice of them, sad he wouldn't live to use it. "_KAI!!!!!_"

Kai himself stood leaning against the wall beside the bed. Honestly, he couldn't remember last time he had actually done this bad habit. Now, he was absolutely aware of it, probably only because he tried to forget the hunger. Thinking about other things had always been the best way to get away from the pain. So Kai concentrated solely on the way he stood and the irritation he felt for... "Kai!" ... his stubborn neighbour. Sure, he might be kinda, so-so, kinda, yeah...... happy that someone thought he meant so much that they would waste how much time to get an answer. "_KAI!!_" In the end, it might not be so... "**KAI!!**" ... surprising, but it still meant a lot. A lot more than the irritation he felt right now.

"_**KAI!**_" Finally, the slatehaired opened his lavender eyes, staring the bluenette down with a glare of stones. "Kai..." Tyson stood breathless as his brown eyes met the violet, and the eyes widened. Then, once again their gazes split as the violets closed again, leaving the midnight haired speechless. For a moment, the slate regretted his doings, but then, the hunger shot through him again, making him forget anything else for the moment.

Of course, he didn't let it show. It was under him to let himself fall into the weakness of pity and self-pity. He wouldn't let anyone see his pain, nor would he let them stop his demonstration towards Boris. They would never understand, and he hadn't the words to try to make them understand, so they had to get used not to understand. They had to learn the hard way that he wouldn't talk to anyone. He would find a way to get out of here, and then he would take them and all the others he could find and get them out from this place. Then, he did not know what to do. If they could, then, sure, they would stop Boris and his grandfather. But he wasn't going to decide for anyone. The more they got out, the bigger was the chance of them actually succeeding in stopping the two freaks.

But he had to be alive to do that. The problem was just the reason he made this demonstration. She was in Boris' hands right now... His b- "Kai?" This time, it wasn't the midnight talking, and Kai forced his eyes open once again. In the cell to Tysons left, Max stood, his eyes wide with fright and confusion. Again, the slates eyes closed, but Max at least knew he was listening. "Kai, whatever happened with Boris, it's okay," the blond reassured. Snorting, Kai shifted weight. Everything was a lot worse than the blond could imagine. "We just have to stand together. We are in this together, okay? You can trust us." You have always been too naïve, blond. Not all things is forgiveable, and what he had done for her to be in the creeps hands was bad. "Talk to us, please. Let us know."

Sorry, kid, can't do it. Kai didn't react. He could hear the blond begin to walk in his cell, back and forth, and it was first then the violet-eyed understood how much his actions scared the younger one. If something could make him react like this, do something that they hadn't seen so obvious since the first few months of their friendship, bad things was happening. Or, that must have been what they thought.

"As you said, he's not going to answer," Tyson said, and from the sound in his voice, he was clearly angered at the silent wall that was placed in front of him right now. "He's too selfish to tell us." Sad that Kai wasn't about to get angry at the bluenette, though the words still hurt. But decision's decision, he wouldn't talk. To anyone. Boris probably had some microphones in here too, and cameras, though they were well hidden. He watched everything that was going on, listened to Kais' two friends talking, heard the hurt in their voices when they feared to have lost their team mate to the enemy. And saw Kais' uneaten plate.

As it was impossible for them to follow the time of the day, Kai did not know how many minutes – or maybe hours – that had passed before he heard two pairs of footsteps. He was not supposed to die, so they couldn't let him go on like this. But it was better for them if he began eating in stead of them, having to force him with something. They wanted him, and wanted him badly, or they would have let him wake up in the darkness of the cells like every other. In stead, Boris had contacted him and talked to him, telling him that they wanted him as a leader. He was not going to.

He heard his team mates gasp, but his eyes were shut and closed.

"Kai."

At least it's someone else than Tyson this time.

"_Kai!_"

Shut up, creep. I'm not listening.

"_**Kai**_, I'm talking to you!"

Ooooh, I didn't know that, thought someone else in this dark shithole with three people had that name!

The violets refused to bloom, and Boris had the feeling of talking to the bed by the teens' side. He stamped the floors with his feet and waited, but not even time could get the eyes to open. "We'll hurt her if you don't react." Finally, with a gleam of red, the violet met the red eyes of Boris. But the violets didn't bloom beautifully, and only the hate of his halfdead heart and the insanity that only beybattle normally formed was in the eyes. He did not look at the man by Boris' side, didn't even care about that shit. Whoever it was, it wasn't important. "That's good. Now, eat, please." Eat? _Eat?_ That was the same as cooperating, giving in.

Kai let the head drop down again and closed his eyes, ignoring the purplehaired once again. "Kai, I thought I had learned you better manners." The whole body of Kais' twitched the moment he heard that voice, but he did not react, though he knew that he man had seen his weakness, even that short moment of weakness, the moment he himself had felt it. You yourself do not have manner, you... You... Words could not describe it. But Kai didn't react. "We have my son, too. In prison. He might get hurt if you don't do what we say." I thought that idiot was dead.. Oh well, if you are crazy enough to kill your own son, then it's your decision. I don't care about that disappointing bastard. "Just go over there and eat. Stop doing this to me and to yourself. Make me proud, my boy." A moment, he was so close to give in. Though his memories was still clouded, he knew those words from this man once had had powers over him, had been able to make him do everything.

He knew this because of his own reaction more than the memories of himself being 13 and doing the orders of this man, cause then, the man had never said anything like that. _Make me proud, my boy_. It echoed in his head, jumping from wall to wall, corner to every lousy corner of his mind. He wanted to make him proud, to actually do the orders, whatever it was. A moment, his sense struggled hard with his old selflearned instincts, his whole body tensing as he wanted to forfill the orders and spare himself for the pain for the hunger. But he wouldn't do it. He was stronger than the younger Kai, that had looked up to this man and seen him as the ruler of the world. That time, this man had ruled his own, little childworld. Now, this dream had come true for the man, but there was one thing Kai made sure that maniac didn't rule. The mind of his own, seventeen year old grandson.

"Disappointing, Kai. Very disappointing," the man said when he realized silence would be his only answer. Those words was even sharper knives, tormenting Kais stomach and heart. But he had decided! "You know she might get hurt, and yet you turn your back to her. Is that what such a mighty, poor thing gets for being so loyal to you all your life?" The fire of a phoenix answered the words as Kai finally opened his violet eyes to stare Voltaire down. Their eyes met, them both feeling the strength and anger the 'Hiwataris' had. As none of them refused to look away from the deathglares, Voltaire began smirking. The years out of his hands hadn't destroyed what made Kai the best Hiwatari in later history.

"It's you who are hurting her, not me," Kai answered, growled, whatever he did. That was all he was going to say, cause already this left him out as the weaker Hiwatari. He had lost by slacking on a principle he had decided he would follow. How he hated this man in front of him, the man that until in sight he called grandfather.

"I don't have to if you cooperate. So, just talk to me." Silence. "Come on, Kai." Silence. "You know what happen. Just talk." Silence. The violets continued to burn into the doublehaired, old mans' skull. The slight insanity hadn't left them, the flowers bloomed with hatred and anger, despair and love for _her_. Cause love her, that he did. But they wouldn't kill her, wouldn't do it,knowing that if they did, they had nothing to force him to do anything. "She might get hurt pretty badly. And she has always been so loyal to you, even in the hardest times... Where you lost her, again and again." The teens' jaw began to work and the look got more intense as the old man began to mock him. But no words was spoken, and no eyes disconnected. In stead, their glares got so strongly connected that sparks nearly flew out from their eyes. Sighing, Voltaire looked away. Kai was the winner. For now.

"If you eat, nothing happens to her at all. But your father will..." Kai spat on the floor, and their eyes connected again. Voltaire understood, and it amused him. The doublehaired sixty year old man smirked as he watched his also doublehaired grandson show him how split up he had managed to get their family. He folded his arms as he watched the kid in front of him, his red eyes flaming with the sweet feeling of victory. "But _my son_ will be whipped for every day you keep your mouth shut. Then you decide how well we treat him, boy."

Just to show them that he did not follow their orders, Kai waited a long time before he acted. Then, just as Boris was on his way to speak again, Kai pushed his back away from the wall, took the chair and skidded it in to the front of the table with his now cold food. She was not going to suffer because of his insolence. Walking over, he sat down on the chair and watched the two men.

'Leave' was printed in his look, and both of them smirked. They saw it as a victory, but this was as far as he would go for them. They could whip his so-called father all they wanted, it wouldn't make a difference to him. The difference laid in her, and she wouldn't die. She might get hurt, if they really was able to hurt her, but they couldn't kill her. The two men turned as he continued to stare at them, and as they stopped being a threat, he eyed his food with caution. The others had gotten some kind of porridge as far as he had seen. But he stared at a nice soup with lamp and vegetables.

It gave him nausea. Even more nausea than the hunger had given him now. They treated him special, probably in an attempt to get him to their side. The dark side, as they had called it so nicely in those movies. He was never, ever, going to. Never.

"Oh, and Kai," Boris' voice said, far to close to him. Kai didn't respond, simply stared at his ugly soup. Special treatment his ass. Should he throw the soup at Boris? No, next time, when he wasn't seriously dying of hunger. Boris waited until he realized that a respond was only a dream he could have. "I have a gift for you. Two, actually, one from Voltaire and one from myself. I'll just leave them here. Oh, and when you are done eating, there is something we are going to do together. Tyson, Max, you too!"

Something hard dropped to the floor, but Kai did not react to it. He heard the two others react, gasp, but did not turn himself. Instead, he slowly ate the first spoonful soup, and as irritating and wrong as it was, it tasted good. It was spiced with different things, but Kai was not a good cook. He knew when food tasted good or bad, but why they had the taste they had, he didn't care about. In stead of concentrating on food, music, animals and drawing was his strengths and love.

"Kai, what is that?" What is what? Kai turned, looked at Tyson, who stared at something on the floor. Not surprising, Dranzer and his blade missed, but he knew that already when he had woken up. On the floor, Boris had left a black blade and a piece of paper. Slowly finishing his soup while he watched the two things carefully, he let the bowl drop on the table and rose from the chair. Walking over with quiet steps, he got down on his knees and took the beyblade up. Not to his surprise, Black Dranzer stared out at him from the image on the bit. It was as beautiful as always, and he could feel that tempting power. _Power_.

For a moment, he understood his grandfathers' obsession. For a moment, he knew why the thing about ruling the world was so appealing... Maybe he could do that too once. Be in power... Rule the world... Finally get acknowledge for what he was... The superior of them all... The leader... The one in the kingdom of souls that lead-

"_Kai, what is it?" _

He did not remember closing his eyes, but it must have happened. Coming back to reality, he dropped the genderless excuse of a bitbeast to the floor again and turned to the paper, Tyson and Max knowing what the blade was. It was obvious, and it was stupid. And scary, of course, though they only knew a small bit of the powers that thing contained. No one else than he, the youngest Hiwatari and the best of them all, could use this power. But control it... If it still was able to seduce him into those thoughts, he wasn't able to control it either.

Turning the paper, Kai found out it wasn't just a paper at all. The eyes dilated as he dropped that, too, but this time it was without his intention. They were toying with him, that was the only explanation. Why else would they give him a photo like... that one? Tyson repeated his question. What was it? Kai looked up again, something unknown twisting the secure look he always had into an inferno of feelings. Meeting the brown eyes, Tyson understood something was very wrong. Why he did it, Kai didn't know, but he let the photo slide over to the cell of Tysons'. As the midnight took it up again, his eyes dilated even further as he took it up.

"What is it?" Max asked, and his head popped out beside Tysons' cell. Tyson got closer to the blond and the two blue pools dilated too. The people in the photos wasn't mistakable. "That's your grandfather and Boris," he stated, talking about the two people in the corners, both of them smiling innocently and staring at the camera. They seemed about... ten years younger. The man beside Voltaire... The similarity between those two, and the similarity between that guy and Kai left no doubt about who that was. Though he smiled too, his eyes wasn't on the camera, but on their way to his own father. Though Kai was unable to realize this, Max and Tyson immediately recognized insecurity, uncomfortability and hurt in the mans' eyes.

"Who's she?" Tyson asked. Kai had placed himself with his back against the wall again, and eyes closed. He didn't look up when he asked, not interested in which 'she' they talked about. "The woman in the dress? Is she..." He hesitated, afraid to turn the teen against him. But Kai nodded, knowing the last part of his question. Yes, the violeteyed woman who eyes Boris admiring, not that he was able to see this part, was his mother. He had forgotten how she looked, but he didn't doubt this. She was his mom. Of course, they didn't have to ask who the boy was in the middle. His back turned at the camera, Kai was still recognizable. The little four-year-old held his mothers hand and tucked his fathers shirt, trying to get the attention of both his parents. In the picture, he was the only link between them in the picture, as they were standing so far apart they could for a couple without looking too weird. "What about the little kid? In her arms?"

But they had to ask about _her_. That little beauty, clenching her mothers dress as she hid her head in the neck of her heroine. But none of the parents concentrated on their kids, not giving the little girl the attention that she deserved and that the boy-Kai claimed. The two-year-old kid had her fathers crimson eyes, and the front of her semi-long hair was as dark-blue as the back of her big brothers, the bangs that framed her face. The back, on the other hand, was a light lavender, as her mom. The face was serene, the shining beauty of the sun that none of her parents, nor her brother. But the serene traits didn't stop her eyes from being confused, insecure, as she had understood far more of the family's problems than her big brother.

Of course they had to ask about _her_.

_She_ was the perfection of his life's failure.

He had failed her. Not only once, but more times.

"Is she your littlesis?" He didn't nod this time. She, more than his traitorous father or weak mother, was the reason for his internal struggle, as she was the one he really, truly loved. But they shouldn't know, they shouldn't know just _how _weak he actually was. His angel, little Asachi. He forced himself to nod, and though it came to slow for him to look like a normal act, it was covering up the weakness. "Where is she now? In this building? Is it her you are..?"

Before Kais heart could break from the pressure of their questions, an old, rusty door opened slowly, noising loud. Slowly, the slate opened his eyes again, the sight of two guards with gun and in heavy armor telling them that it was time for them to show cooperation. What the hell Boris had decided to make them do...

* * *

How long had it been since the others woke up? It seemed long, as they were talking pretty loud and fast. Wonder what had woken them, since he had continued sleeping? But it was a stupid mystery, as it didn't matter. The only thing he should concentrate on was his captain and how the hell they got out of here. They should have the others with them, but that only complicated it all. And why the hell was he thinking this when he hadn't even gotten breakfast?

The emeralds emerged as the greyhaired let himself wake up fully, and he rolled out of the bed, clumsily and tiredly. He could have done better, but it wasn't about doing better, but simply making him look human for the people all around him. That was also the reason why he mimicked the expression of the most in a room. If there was five people in a row and three of them smiled, that was the expression he showed. Smile. Unless he was with his team mates.

Now, neither team or many people was there, so he had to come up with something himself. He had seen many people be groggy when waking up, a habit he did not follow, but that didn't make him unable to mimic the movements. That was his way to move and survive if cities on his own. Looking at the table, he did not see anything else than the porridge they had gotten yesterday evening (or what the hell the clock had been), so he couldn't determine what time it was. Fuck that. It didn't matter, as long as he got food and sleep.

He dragged himself to the table, an act as much as him rolling the bed. Sitting down, he began eating, making a face of disgust as he assumed he wouldn't like the taste if he had cared about that. He looked at the empty cell in his front. The kid hadn't found a replacement, but it was probably just a matter of time. If Boris had anymore to put in here. Most people had to be dead, even though there was people from all over the world. They had probably filled every cell there was in this place.

After Tala had finally calmed down yesterday, they had tried to reach him to forfill their duty and... well, clean up the mess they had made. But as soon anyone had neared the dead body, Tala had showed a lot of creativity in trying to find a new projectile he could throw at them. Bryan did not know how much bed, sink or table he had left, but that had to end too. In the end, Tala had simply sat down and waited for them to come and take him to wherever they wanted to whip him and take the body of the kid away too. When they had come, he had followed them without struggling, knowing it wouldn't matter. Bryan didn't see it as a sign of defeat in the redhead to let them take him, but more as he had demonstrated to them that he was not going to be easy to have to do with to first let them take him then. It meant a harder punishment, but it was worth it in the end.

Though it was hard to see what it was worth when he had come back. The white clothes was soaked in the blood from his back where he had been whipped, and they had gagged him as Boris had said. But the blindfold, that might have been their own idea, and binding his hands on the back wasn't part of the plan Bryan had known, either. Tala had been nearly unable to stand because of the pain of his body and the dizziness of the blood loss, so the two guards had been forced to drag him to his cell instead of having him to walk. Bryan just hoped hadn't broken the other teen.

The bowl dropped to the table again as he was done eating. He kicked out the chair, walked over to the bars and watched out. As the green eyes flowed over the cells on the other side of the hall, he stopped at the Italians cell. In stead of a dead or half-dead blondie, a pale, yeah, sure, but totally awake and fresh teen stared at him from the cell. Bryan searched the cell for answer, and found them. Two bowls sat on the table, though Bryan knew the kid hadn't gotten any food yesterday.

"Where...?" The blond blinked when he was dragged out of the thoughts, then smiled and nodded towards the cell in front of him. So it was Brooklyn? That weirdo had decided to use some of his food on Enrique? He had the right attitude, then, as they would not succeed surviving if they didn't stay together. Bryan turned his head, but neither the citrinehaired or the redhead was there. Not surprising for the redhead, but the apatite could have reacted when they talked about him. Bryan sighed, him beginning to be quite anxious about the captain. This was an absolute unknown emotion, but he knew why he felt like that. He turned to watch Hillary instead, hoping she would help.

"Hillary?"

The girl had until then sat hidden in the darkness of her cell. He watched her as she got over to the bars and folded her hands around the iron, looking at him with disgust for his nonefeelingness. "Yes, what is it, Bryan?" In the brunettes head, his name was Heartless Freak more than 'Bryan', but it wouldn't be nice to say aloud. Getting her bangs out of her eyes, she didn't look at him to see that anxiousness folding out in full on his face. When she finally looked at him again, the only thing staring at he was a face of nothing, until he mimicked a smile.

"I'm just wondering... How's Tala?" the emotionless teen said, hoping to get an answer he could use. Something about her seemed hostile, but he didn't know whether he should care or not. He saw her eyes drift over to the redheads cell and stop there, her lips trembling as she watched the redhead. That meant bad, but he had used up all his anxiousness when it had flamed just moments ago.

"He's laying on the bed... I don't know if his awake, or if he can hear us, but he's breathing." That wasn't so bad, though it would have been better if he had been struggling to get the hands free. "He's bound as he was when they put him there. I think... He seems to have stopped bleeding. I don't think he's... feeling very good." The trembling of her lips got worse as she finally looked away, back to the emeralds. "That's about it."

The smile was still on his face, this time showing concern he didn't feel. It was his first time showing the feelings he would have felt without help from others. "Thank you, Hillary. Thank you a lot. I owe you one for this." She stared at him a long time after that, but he didn't look at her. In stead, his eyes was on the cell two to his left, waiting and hoping that time would help his friend to come out and guide him again, help his friend to live. "Please, tell me if he begins to move." He closed his eyes and breathed deep, finding his anxiousness again as he dug down to find his happiness when he was with the redhead. The good feelings only his team could give him. "Вернись к жизни, мой друг," (come back to life, my friend) he whispered, and though the words was quiet and unintelligible, it reached out to the nearest cells, they twisted in and out in the maze of hundreds of other words that was said around them, until they finally found their target.

"What did you-" Hillary began, but then, her eyes widened, and something more important came to mind. "He moves! Bryan, Tala moves!" Bryan head snapped up again, staring towards the redheads cell once again. Then he looked over at Hillary, and she understood. "He's trying to get his arms free," she said. "No, look out, the bed is not that... Broad." A loud thud was heard as Tala fell down to the floor.

"Tala, if you come over here, I'll help you with the bounds," Brooklyn said, saying something for the first time that day. The orange hair looked even wilder than it did the day before as the citrine-haired got over to the bars, closest to the bars.

"How is he supposed to find you when he can't see a thing?" Enrique interfered. It sounded more as a friendly guiding-question than a hostile attack, as he owed his life to the aquaeyed lazy body. "He can't even move right."

"Wstrop wralkin wrabot we washif wy wrasn't where!" something growled, it being totally uunderstandable. So, well, it was obviously Tala.

"Just follow my voice, Tala, I can try to help," Brooklyn said, like the others not understanding a word of what they had said.

It must have been very funny to look at the wolf, crawling like a worm towards Brooklyn, but it was no time for laughter. The others around them still talked about missing friends, the strongest trying to comfort the weakest, but all that could see either Tala or Enrique were silent. With a last struggling breath, the redhead got over to the bars in the corner closest to the apatite eyed, his soar back against the cold iron and his tied hands out towards his rescuer. Brooklyn tried to reach out.

"I can't reach it. I'm sorry," Brooklyn panted, as he continued to try. Inches. So few inches, and yet he couldn't touch the bind. Tala pulled himself closer, and though it hurt him and he obviously groaned in pain, Brooklyn grabbed his hands and began to work with the bind. "Wait one more minute," Brooklyn purred reassuring as Tala once again groan in pain. "Another moment... There."

Tala pulled away from the bars, still blind and unable to speak. His hands searching, he tried to find a way to get it of. After some time, it worked, and he let himself drop down on the floor with closed eyes, him being totally worn out. This, Bryan couldn't see, so he waited, plastered to the bars to make sure the captain was more or less well.

"Tala? Are you there?" He didn't get an answer? Should he be scared? It felt like he was scared, didn't it? He was confused, but kept calm. He was always calm and collected. "Вы здесь, Тала?"(Are you there, Tala?) It was louder said than he wanted it to be, but it meant nothing. Hopefully, Tala heard him and answered.

"Перестань говорить так громко, Брайан!" (Stop talking so loud, Bryan!) The green-eyed sighed when he heard that be said. Was he happy? He thought, he was happy. Maybe he wasn't... It was wrong if he was, though it was still right. And he was once again confused, until the redhead let his head come out from the cell. Though he had a pained look, and the eyes were glassy and slightly unfocused, it was surely happiness that person gave him.

"Мне очень жаль. Как твое здоровье, Тала?" (I'm sorry. How do you feel/how's your health, Tala?) Bryan asked, ignoring the people around them. They looked at the two Russians, unable to understand a word, though the words Tala and Bryan was recognizable.

"Я чувствую себя лучше, чем я и раньше," (I feel better than I did before) the redhead answered, the others obviously feeling that the two left them out on purpose. The beautiful, blue eyes searched the other faces, and though he recognized them all, his eyes flooded with wonder and question. He was clearly very sick.

"Затем я не буду беспокоиться об этом больше." (Then I won't worry about it)

"Вы должны." (You should)

"Зачем?" (Why?)

"Я уверен, у меня жар. Я чувствую себя очень легкий во главе..." (I'm sure I have a fever. I feel very light headed...) As long as he himself could see he was sick, it might not be that bad.

"Это не хорошо звучат..." (This doesn't sound good) the green-eyed said, Hillary finally getting annoyed enough to growl at them. "Другие хотят с нами говорить по-английски..." (The others wants us to speak English) But the redhead slowly shook his head.

"Нет... Английский не имеет никакого смысла... Я не могу понять это прямо сейчас..." (No... English makes no sense... I can not understand it right now...) The redhead took his head down, supporting it with his hand. He looked like he was about to throw up, his face pale-green and his lips shut tight.

"Черт," (Damn/devil/hell.) the greyhaired sighed, calculating how best to get out of this situation. "Вы были правы, вы очень больны." (You were right, you are very sick) He looked up at the others. "Sorry. Tala has a fever, he's not very well. Is there anyone who know anything about wounds? He might have gotten an infection... It would explain the fever." They had to stay together, he had gotten that far in his head, and the others that was near seemed to think the same. But... no one knew anything about wounds.

If they didn't do something, then Tala might... An infected wound was not good. And they knew that they had to bandage it and clean it, but when they were in each different cell, when they had nothing to bandage nor clean, what should they do? What could they do? He might really... "He's gonna survive," Brooklyn suddenly said, him too have been lost in those thoughts. How he could know was a mystery, but the words was said so surely that the others didn't doubt it. Maybe it wasn't as bad as they feared...

Brooklyn smiled to them, and right then, footsteps was heard. "Right on time..." The words reached Bryans ears, and he glared the citrinehaired down, as he suddenly knew bad things was about to come. But Brooklyns attention was directed the other way, as they heard Boris yell:

"Everyone, wake up and get going!"

Brooklyn continued to stare towards the purplehaired man with excitement as the emerald-eyed dug in to his cell to find whatever he had to throw at that weirdo. "Boris," the calm teen said in a bored voice. It wasn't the voice he had when he talked to the people around him, but it didn't matter much. Their torturer stopped dead, only just in sight for the apatite-eyed boy. "Take Tala with you." The man began walking again, letting the guards find out to unlock the cells themselves. To make sure no one got funny ideas, they all had guns and rifles with them.

"To where."

"To whatever comes to your mind."

"And why should I do that."

"Because you don't want him to die." Bryan stopped dead just as he was about to aim for the citrine with his spoon. Was that the price for Tala to survive? Get him in enemy's care? How could Brooklyn be sure about this? Was he playing jeopardy with the captains life? If the other one was playing, should he do something about it? Stop it? Was that weirdo even trustworthy?

There was no answers, and the calculating genius just sat, staring at the back of the apatite-eyed's head. Boris, on the other hand, didn't doubt the prodigy for a second. "Eduard, come here." A guard walked over, his shoulders nearly as broad as half of the hallway. "Take that boy to the hospital for care." It was now Bryan had to act if he would protect his captain. Just as he raised his hand to throw the bowl in the head of the guard called Eduard, Brooklyn turned his head. The glow in the aqua eyes was so strong, so intense, Bryan didn't believe it was a humans' eyes. It gave _him_, the nonefeeling, coldhearted, Russian soldier, shivers down the spine. It was the eyes of an ancient god, not a human. Not a sixteen year old kid.

It was him that had to break the connection of their eyes first. He heard Tala, as sick as he had become because of the wounds on his back, struggle to get out of the guards grip, and fail in the attempt. The guard held the redhead tight as he walked past them, and Bryan looked up again, this time to follow his captain disappear for the second time in... it felt like less than 24 hours.

"Katyenka," Boris called as the guards had gotten most of the teens out in the hall. Another guard came over, but... to their all but the Russians' surprise, it was a female. Bryan had heard simply by hearing the name. "How many times did you whip the boy? Tala?" The woman looked him in the eyes as she answered.

"One hundred times, as ordered." She didn't blink, didn't flinch, as she looked in he cold eyes with her dark green wintereyes. A hundred times was many. Bryan had tried worse, four hundred sixty four times, but he had been the only one in the abbey. Tala could take much, but that answered his unspoken question about whether or not Tala had gotten weak. The fact that he was able to even stand showed that he was as tough as ever.

"Who ordered that? I ordered ten. Who the hell told you to whip him a hundred times?!" Boris had gotten all red again. He had to learn to control that temper of his. But, then again, he had always been like that. It had scared the shit out of them when the had been small kids in his hands, but now, it simply showed how vulnerable he was when he got angry. Screaming, threatening, that didn't help anyone.

"Eduard." Something was slightly off when the woman said that, but Bryan couldn't decide what it was. But if she was speaking the truth, then Tala might be in a lot of trouble, since the one defying orders to the worse for Tala was the one that held the wounded captain in custody. Boris also knew this, and since he hoped to use the captain later, he turned around at hurried in the direction the two had gone. Katyenka smirked, and Bryan understood what he had found off. The woman had lied when she blamed the man. She looked at them, an her green eyes got caring, like a mother watching her children. "Come with me. It's time to train."

When she and the other guards opened the doors to the cells, Bryan was about to run and try to get out. Then, he saw the guns closer, and knew that plan was idiotic. The guns and rifles was easy-handling and fast-loading. He had handled such a thing many times, and knew that the target could be hit seconds after you saw it moving. Shaking his head, he walked out the cell, trying to get a plan set together in his calculating mind. He had to get as many guns as possible, so they could get out with success. They had to be armed when they left, or they were doomed.

Bryan shoot a warning look to all those that seemed ready to run, even those he did not know or hadn't contacted. Luckily, they all understood the warning in his eyes and followed, though the guards seemed uncertain about what they were supposed to do with the Italian. He should be death or near death, but instead, he stood beside Brooklyn and seemed as strong as ever. With Brooklyns' guidance, they decided to let him go with the others, and with an armed guard for each ten teens, they were driven through the hall like a flock of sheep. They got to a large room with beystadiums and fitness-machines all over. The got in to the room from an entrance called '3rd B', and had to go down some stairs to get to the bottom of the room.

"Everyone that has never beybladed before, step over to Table A!" a known voice called out over the crowd. It was Katyenka, seeming to be having a high rank in this dark hell of a building. The authority in her voice made them listen and do the orders. He saw Hillary and the blond girl beside Enrique move over to table A. "Everyone that can launch a blade, control the blade or have experience with beyblading without getting in a high national or any international competition, over to table B!" Bryan had found out that he was supposed to do, and he walked towards table C before she ordered everyone that could compete in blading on a quite high level. And that was exactly what she did. "Champions, high skilled bladers and so on go to the table C!"

It was first then Bryan discovered that there already was three people by the table C. Tyson and Max was close together, talking anxiously as they did not know what happened, and the one and only Kai stood at a wall with his back against it. That meant Rei was dead, or he would have been there. Sad, the emerald-eyed had always thought quite highly of the neko-jin member of the Bladebreakers since... a certain episode a few years ago. Including BIOVOLT, Boris and Voltaire, and a seriously injured Rei.

Sighing over this sad, unimportant fact, Bryan looked the others over, mimicking the expression of the most, though his expression was less scared. Boris didn't really scare him so much anymore, though his methods did. Looking from face to face, Bryan recognized everyone, except some of the Asian, American and other continents own competitors. European Championship, American Championship and other continental Championships competitors that couldn't make it all the way to the World Championship. No neko-jin was there, but Julia from F-Dynasty, Miguel and Mathilda from the cheating-group Bartez Battalion, and Eddie and Emily of the Americans was there. And from the BEGA, both Mystel, Garland and the annoying Ming-Ming was there, them all staring at Brooklyn as if he was a zombie rising up from the death.

"Hi, guys," the apatite-eyed said when he saw his old teammates, raising a hand as a greeting to them. A moth had found its place on that hand, showing that even in the most animal-less, dark places, animals preferred his company. Beside him, Enrique still stood. He needed the protection of the lazy body to be there, or else the guards might change their minds and decide him to be a problem they didn't want to be responsible for.

"I thought you stopped blading, Brooklyn," Garland said. "If you had begun again, we would happily had taken you back a-"

"Stand in line!" It was like a military order, which made Bryan react as he had learned. Finding a place in the line, he got in, stood with Julia on one side and Garland on another, the first one to stand straight. And the only one to do that, as his instincts told him that was how you stood when an order was given. He didn't like Garland, but he wasn't getting out of the line because of that. A man with a strict face, a full beard and a whip and a gun in the belt stood, staring them all down. All of the people in the line looked at him, except for two, Kai standing with arms crossed and eyes closed, Bryan standing up straight and staring forward as he was trained to do. "Looks like we have a soldier between amateurs." The man walked over to Bryan. "Whats your name, kid?"

"Bryan Kuznetsov, sir!" he answered, the mind turned off as he relied on instincts. The man stood right in front of him, so they looked each other in the eyes. The man saw the scariest thing he'd ever seen, being able to detect the falseness in the expressions Bryan made. How Bryan fought to look like everyone else, and nearly succeeded, though he wasn't like anyone else. Probably in the world. A youngster with no feeling, that is.

"Where are you from, kid?"

"Russia, sir!"

"You are well-disciplined." That was an understatement. "How come you are?"

"It's a long story, sir!"

"Tell me."

"Me and Boris have history, sir!" Oh... This kid was an experiment, or something like that. Creepy, that Boris was able to destroy a human so entirely.

The bearded man walked back and began to march in front of the line of people. "My name is Maxim. I'm your instructor, понял? (understand) I train you, I guide you, I make you soldiers!" He stopped in front of Kai, who did not give him any attention. "Are you listening?" Kai still did not speak to anyone. He simply opened his violet eyes and looked into the brown ones of Maxim. "Oh, so you are the Hiwatari? That look in the eyes can be from no other. I'm not going to go easy on you because you are the leaders grandson, понял? Though you seem to be strong enough for my state of troops." He looked them all over again. Walked over and picked out some people, including Max, Tyson, Miguel, some of the lesser-ranked competitors and all the girls in the group. "You train to get a better physic."

"That's discriminating, to pick out all the girls! Some of us are fine!" Julia sneered, making Maxim smile.

"Yes, for being girls. But in my army, gender doesn't matter. And if everyone is going to get minimally up to the physic out young soldier have now, the girls need training. I'm not male chauvinist, I love women and have seen many surpass the male humans, but you have to keep up." He looked the left over once again, and walked over towards Brooklyn, who backed away, shaking his head.

"No. No, no, no. You can't make me do it. I am good as I am, I'm neither going to fight nor shoot anyone. I said yes to begin to blade again, not to be part of an army or train my body. I'm strong as I am, very strong, I'm _not _going to work for it! _Not _like that!" The citrine haired shook his head a little wilder and continued to back away, his sense and eyes flickering for a moment as the fear of having to work hard got the hidden, darker part of him to fight to break free. Of course, Brooklyn fought him off, but it was hard enough as that.

"Then show me if you are as good as you claim," the man ordering, seeing the flicker in those beautiful but not understanding, not knowing what destruction this light demon could bring. "For some reason, I do not believe you."

"I can't show you, I do not have a blade for the moment. But I have no need to train, I promise you!" The others, even Bryan, stared at him as his back finally hit the wall. Maxim had stopped walking towards him long ago, standing a few feet in front of everyone and watching the kid with question. "I'm not going to sit in a machine and train, you can't make me."

"Sir, I suggest you let him be," Garland said, him as much as most afraid of Brooklyn if he did freak out. The moth from before, though, decided to calm the white teen down, so it flew over and portrayed his shoulder with its black wings. He looked down and smiled, then up at the guard.

"I'm not going to train. I might battle some people, but I won't train. You can give me any blade and put me up to any opponent, and I'll prove to you that I need nothing." His voice was as before, calm, collected and sensitive, and he stroked the moth with a cautious finger, making sure not to hurt the night animals beautiful features.

"Oh, so you're that guy? I've gotten a blade for you. Boris asked me to inform you, that it might actually give you a struggle. It's a hard metal blade, one of those Tyson and his team used to beat you at the tournament. It's said to be very hard to control."

Slowly, the apatite-eyed teen walked over and took the blade, feeling it heavier than the bigger one he had had before. He found Zeus in his pocket and took it in the blade, a weak smile crossing his face. "Are we going to begin?" An aura began to surround him, and as he got into the row of sportsfolk again, even Enrique moved slightly away. That Brooklyn was scary as shit.

"Yes. Katyenka, take that group over to the machines while I get these ones to begin." That green-eyed woman got over and guided the group towards the fitness machines. "I'll take over their training as soon as I'm done with these," Maxim promised, and Katyenka rolled her eyes and mumbled curses in Russia. She probably thought she already had her hands full, but she didn't complain, simply continued walking.

Maxim turned to them again. "Okay, we have the physically best bladers her ... And Brooklyn." Brooklyn didn't react, to caught in his new, heavy beyblade. "Now, you show me if you are the best at blading, too. The reason is, that scientists have made a new weapon, which is a lot like the heavy metal blades. All of you have to master the heavy metal systems, but first, you are going to get better bladers and prove to me that you are ready for the challenge the heavy metal system is. Someone has thought Brooklyn..." Maxim stopped talking as he looked at the prodigy, who had lost interest in the blade and had gone back to his moth. The difference was just that one moth had evolved into about ten, covering his body and giving him a dreaming smile on his face. Yeah, he still liked animals, even if it wasn't the ones he normally had contact with. "Well, that over there have been selected as good enough to be learning the heavy metal system. You will show me your skills, if you get exhausted, you will get into the fitnessgroup, if you show any physical weakness, you will get into the fitnessgroup, понял?"

"But if you are going to the others, sir, you can't watch us, sir!" Bryan argued, his mind already having two options that could be used. Cameras, or he had guards the he trusted to control them that reported to him. He would prefer cameras, as it was the most secure option, even though it would take a lot of time watching the tapes that might be time wasting.

"Me older men watch over you for me. If I think they have misjudged you, we have cameras everywhere, so I can watch you matches and judge you. Это понятно? (Is that clear) I'm not into funny business, so if you want to waste your time, at least have put on a show that show me you best and you worst if you want my guard to misjudge your talents." Maxim watched them all over as Bryan thought this man a genius. He knew no one was unmistakable, so he had found a way to compensate and a skill-level they at least should have by the looks of them. He would get busy the first day, cause he himself misjudge many skills because of sloppy or strict looks. Brooklyn he didn't think had skill at all because the apatite-eyed was not willing to train or work at all, while Bryan himself would be thought very highly of because of his soldier-attitude, even though he knew his skills was worse than most of the ones that had been on the teams in the championships. "Now, all of you, over to a beystadium!"

"Да, сэр!" (Yes, sir!) Bryan said and began walking, or, marching towards the nearest stadium. He reached it and looked up to see one of the lesser, female sportsmen stand on the other side of the dish. If they fought, that kid would lose, and that normally meant that the kid would be taken away and never come back. _I'm not gonna fight her_. They both took their beyblades and made them ready. There were two guards per five people, and one of the guards was very close. _I'm __not__ gonna fight her_. Someone yelled for them:

"Ready?!! 3, 2, 1, GO!!"

It sounded like hundreds of blades hit the dishes. But only one blade hit their dish. A aqua-blue blade, with no bitbeast. The girl looked at him with question, but he didn't look at her. Instead, he watched the guard. "I'm not gonna fight her," he said in an emotionless tone. He knew she would lose if he began to blade with her.

"Say what?!" the guard said, walking over towards them, his expression full of rage.

"I just told you, I'm _not_ gonna fi-"

The sound of a whip silenced all the people in this part of the room. It snapped Bryans head down as he felt the warm, thick blood ran slowly down his cheek as pleasure jolted through his body, making it shake with suppressed enjoyment. _A boy, about four years old and same height as Bryan with burning red hair, stood with a whip clenched in his hands as the hard, blue eyes looked the other boy over. Bryan stared at him with scared, green eyes, feeling Boris having a hand on his shoulder_. "You do what I say, you little fuck!" the guard said as Bryan slowly lifted his head, blinking the image of the past away as the pleasure disappeared. His cheeks didn't even hurt. The guard was coming over to him, so he had a chance to take the gun.

"Wait!" Boris' voice got over to them, and few seconds after, Bryan felt the hands lay itself on his shoulder again. He lifted his head to _look at nice-man Boris, the man that had taken him away from his parents. His father had said a lot of bad things about __мама _(I'll call her mama from now on)_. His father said that mama had cheated him in court, and that mama wasn't supposed to have Bryan. That mama was a шлюха _(whore)_. Bryan had gotten scared and fled when his father had gotten violent, meeting with nice-man Boris._

"_Tala," nice-man Boris said, making the redhead look up at him. "We have a new member. His name is Bryan." Bryan had said yes to be a member of their group. Nice-man Boris had told him that they would make the world a better place, and mama had a hard time right now. If he could change the world, he could help mama get away from his father, who had always hit her. She had decided she didn't like to be hit, so mama and Bryan had moved. _

"_Hello, Bryan." Bryan didn't like the look in the blue eyes, and he hid behind Boris' leg._

"_We'll greet him welcome, won't we?" The redhead nodded, walked over and took of Bryans' shirt. Bryan tried to flee, but the redhead was stubborn. And fast. The redhead took a hard grip in his arm and pulled him over to a black metal plate. Chains hung down the side of the metal board, and Bryan looked at nice-man Boris with wide eyes. "Just sit up on it now, Bryan. It's alright." Bryan nodded and did as he was told, his chest and back bare. But when the chains fastened his ankles and wrists, Bryan didn't like it anymore._

"_Boris," he said, tears coming in his eyes. "Boris, mama's waiting for me. Boris, can't I come back to mama now?"_

"_Mama is going to wait a loooong time," nice-man Boris answered, and looked over at Tala. Tala understood, and the whip hit the back of the boy with a __smack__. Bryan screamed, then sobbed. Boris came over to his head and knelt down, and Boris was no longer nice-man. "For every time you scream or cry or even so much as twitch, Tala adds two more hit to your original score of hits. You should have ten in all, now, it's twelve in all." Once again, Tala let the whip play the back. Bryan cried, the tears streaming down his face. "Fourteen in all." _

"_But, but it hurts."_

"_No it doesn't. You don't feel pain." Did not feel pain? But... But it hurt, didn't it? Boris rose and left the room. But Tala didn't stop, even though Bryan cried and sobbed so hard he feared his throat was going to burst. 3... 4... 5... He tried to calculate the equation mama had given him yesterday, y = ax__2__ + bx + c, how many parabolas he could make __out the points of in his head, but the pain was to hard for him to handle. He couldn't think of anything else. He couldn't stop counting the hits. There was about seven seconds between every hit._

_29... 30... 31... He tried stop crying or winching or twitching, he had asked the other kid for mercy, he had done everything he could do._

_107... 108... 109... Bryan was exhausted. He couldn't handle anymore, he just cried for every hit, a little, hard sob every time the whip connected to his back. The other kid was exhausted too, but something made him keep going. The redhead was sweating and panting. Now, nearly eleven seconds between the hit._

_172... 173... 174... Before, Bryan had tried to disconnect the pain, the feeling of his back. Now, he gave up, and the pain flared up to be all-mattering and all-controlling again, Bryan once again began to scream. He couldn't handle it, he was going crazy._

_286... 287... About twenty seconds between the hits. Talas' hand felt like it was falling of, and Bryan had once again stopped screaming, though his back still hurt A LOT!_

_353... 354... 355... It didn't hurt anymore. It didn't hurt. He didn't know why, but the pain had stopped... Pleasure...? Was it pleasure he felt? ... 35 seconds between every hit. Tala was absolute exhausted, but persistent too._

_416... 417... 418... Yes... It was pleasure... Like when mama stroke him when he was sad... And yet, not that pleasure... Even when Tala moved to the neck or the legs to find places that wasn't soaked in blood, places that was new to the whip, it was some weird pleasure that jolted through his body._

_461... 462... 463... The 464__th__ hit was made just as Boris came back in, and Boris was again nice-man. Nice-man Boris had helped him find the real good pleasure. _

"_You can stop now, Tala," Boris said, making Bryan sigh sadly and Tala look confused at him._

"_But I still haven't done it all..."_

"_Can't you see the welcome has been taken. He's happy to be here."_

"_Okay, Boris, sir," Tala said. "May I take him to the hospital, sir?!" Boris nodded, and Tala walked over and took of the chains. Bryan got down on the floor, but he couldn't stand. Instead, he fell down on the floor, feeling more pleasure as his back hit the floor. Never again should he feel pain again whenever he hit himself with the hammer or got slapped for being rude. _

_The little, green-eyed boy looked up at the Boris, who _stared the guard down. "He can use a gun. Don't approach him with a gun on you, he'll take it!" Bryan looked down. Boris had a gun on him, too.

Gun...? Bryan blinked once and saw _a scientist stand before him. Bryan was five, and never felt pain in pleasure. "Shoot the kittens," the scientist said. "It's an order, or you'll get punished. What do you feel when I say you'll get punished? Tell me the truth." _

_Bryan thought of it for a moment, his face plain from feeling. "I feel a little afraid," he said, the fear so small he didn't even think about it when he looked at the kittens._

"_No you don't. The fear is an illusion, created in the weaker part in your mind. If you destroy that part, you'll get stronger than anyone." Bryan nodded. He had heard that a thousand times. "What do you feel about shooting the kittens?" _

"_Nothing." It neither scared him or filled him with awe, nor pleasure or happiness. It was nothing, and that was all. The scientist moved away, leaving his suspect with a light pistol in his hand. The other kids from the abbey was there, but they didn't matter to him. There was only the superior and the inferior, and he couldn't place them in one of those categories. _

_Beside him, an older, blond boy stood with the same assignment as him. Shoot the kittens. Seven kittens and their mother, placed in a big cage twenty meters away. The kittens was 10 weeks, nearly ready to leave the mother._

"_But... I can't just shoot the kittens..." the older boy said, looking at the cats with tears in his eyes. Bryan just watched him, then the kittens._

"_Yes you can."_

"_What?" The boy turned to him._

"_Fear is an illusion. If I shoot five of the kittens and the mother, you shoot the last two, and it's done and over with."_

"_But it hurt them!"_

"_Hurt is an illusion." Bryan raised the gun, aimed the mother... He hated those cats. Hated him so much it filled his nearly darkness-filled inside with black flames. They was in the way of him doing his orders. Anyone who wanted to stop him doing his orders should ...BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG... BANG. He missed one of the kittens, but used one more shot to kill it. The others was dead, and the two left alive was scared and crying."What is your name, crybaby?" Bryan asked and reloaded the gun. "Take down the last two."_

"_Spencer, and don't call me a crybaby. I'm tough!" The bigger kid looked at the animals, tears still in his eyes. Then... he shot. It required five BANGs._

Bryan looked away from Boris' gun, knowing what he should. The guard was getting scolded by Boris, so the purplehaired wasn't concentrated. "You don't know what he can do with a gun! Tell everyone to look out for him and Tala, especially him! I've seen him having no doubts about shootin-"

Bryan knew what he talked about, but he concentrated, and... Succeeded. Bryan still just watched the guard and Boris, but he had gotten what he wanted. The memories forced into his mind wasn't hard for him at all. Not even the one where _Boris stood and watched him. "Is he processing?" he asked, empty, green eyes meeting with hateful crimson._

"_Yes, he's a very successful experiment. There is none like him," the scientist said. "But if you take him, you have to remember that every time he say the feel anything, you deny it. Tell him it's an illusion, or whatever you want. He believe the illusion-part very badly."_

"_I'll keep it in mind." Boris took his hand around the seven-year-olds' arm and dragged him down the abbey, past the other kids that still didn't have a place in his hierarchy. Superior, inferior, which of those were they? Spencer hadn't talked to him in two years, Tala hadn't since the day of his arrival, and none of the others had ever found him interesting enough cause he preferred mathematics for beyblades and reading faces more than talking to them. He was alone here, so alone it had hurt the first couple of years, even after his personal scientists had made him begin blading. Now, he didn't feel that pain anymore, his eternal pain that ripped his heart. It was gone, as the last thing of the feelings he had had._

_They walked down some stairs, down to the lowest cellar. Boris smiled at him. "I found something you might find interesting."_

"_I don't see anything as interesting. I just do your orders, sir." _

"_Of course, my boy, of course." They reached a cell. Inside it, he saw a woman. Her eyes were green, her hair was lavender, the face neither ugly nor beautiful. "Do you recognize her?"_

_Bryan nodded as the woman saw him, and a light was lit in her eyes. "Bryan! Oh, Bryan, I didn't know you were here, I've been so scared for you! Bryan, where have you been?!"_

"_What do you think of her?" Boris asked, and Bryan watched her as she continued to talk._

"_I think I like her," he said, feeling something for the first time in a long time._

"_No you don't. The fact is, that you, liking her, is and illusion."_

"_I know that," the boy asked, the woman having turned silent as she saw the lack of feeling in the kid._

"_Bryan?" she asked, her happiness turning into fright._

"_What will you do with her, then?" Bryan looked at her, then up at Boris. What would bring his superior most pleasure? His mind used a moment to calculate, then he took the gun out of his pocket. Boris backed away, afraid he might have gone too far with the kid. As did the woman, backing away._

_Bryan turned to look at her instead of Boris while he readied the gun. "No, Bryan, no, drop the gun, guns are not toys, no, Bryan, drop it, drop the gun."_

_Boris began smirking as Bryan raised the gun, and Bryan looked at him shortly. He had had right, he'd chosen right. The superior was happy._

"_Goodbye, mama."_

"_BRYAAAA-" BANG!!_

Boris turned from the guard, giving the order that Bryan should have a new opponent. "Kai, come here!" the man said as the guards got a grip on Bryans' arm. "And Bryan. You'll get your punishment for not listening later. I can't have a soldier that doesn't take orders." Bryan didn't care about punishment. He had a gun now.

* * *

Boris and Kai walked together. In the hall. "You left you blade in the your cell." Silence. "You should know better." Silence. "Stop being stubborn. I have it here for you, but that wasn't the reason why I took you away from them. Since I, and your grandfather, know that you will give in when time comes, so we decided you are going to sit as a leader, in my office, and keep control with everything." Silence, though Boris stuffed the black blade into Kais hand. They might want him to get caught up in the leader-role and say yes to their offer. He would get a lot of information in the office, but as long as he was their top priority, they would keep an eye on him always, so he wouldn't be able to be the one to lead the escape. And for the same reason, he wouldn't be able to give his information to the others.

Kai didn't say a thing, but it wasn't a surprise. They just continued to walk, Boris always having a hand on the slates' shoulder, the slate having his violet eyes closed. He was pretty sure it pissed Boris off, but they had to learn to live with it. He would only give up when he decided, and it wasn't the time to give up now. It would take months, that he could promise them. Maybe even a year.

"Boris!" Kai knew that voice. I was the military-guy, Maxim, that was supposed to control them. He ran towards them, him being faster and lighter on the feet than his size indicated. Not even panting, he stopped in the hall, waiting for Boris to turn around. Which the purplehaired did, forcing Kai to follow him around with the hand on his shoulder getting tighter.

"What is it, Maxim? Can't you see I'm busy?" Boris asked, not showing any anger. He seemed either to respect this man or not be as angry as the slate had labeled him. Assuming the first, Kai decided not to cause to much trouble, as it might cause trouble for the ones he actually liked. Or not liked, as he thought about Bryan too, and he had never had a relationship with that guy, even though he remembered him from the abbey. Then, he had been an outsider, which had made Kai wonder how the hell the teen had gotten friends with Tala and the others. What he remembered had been Tala _hating_, Spencer _fearing _and Ian wishing to _kill _the green-eyed boy that the scientists had made their favorite. It might be the fact that they were able to see what it had cost the boy to be there. He was the one who had lost the most by getting into that abbey.

"I refuse to work with the soldier-kid. Bryan Kuznetsov. I work with humans, not robots, and that is what he is. He might breath and talk and feel pain, but feelings are what makes us humans, and what makes us humans is the reason we can be soldiers," Maxim said, looking Boris into the eyes.

"As a matter of fact, I've made sure that he doesn't feel pain either. Unlike the others, a boy who do not feel is a boy you don't have to learn to kill, unlike the humans you normally work with. A boy that are trained to do every order he's told by his superior, no matter what it means to his team or his family, is the ultimate soldier. Right now, the one he sees as his superior doesn't like us, but that is something we are able to change soon. Tala is sick, and that means weak. We can manipulate him into liking us again, and Bryan, being unable to feel anything towards us, will follow his leader into our hands. You are going to help him get a good blader again, Maxim. That's all I ask of you. Bryan was never interested in blading, he only began because he was ordered. If you put the skills into him he had once, then I will give you a reward."

Maxim just stood, staring at Boris. He didn't seem to believe what he had just heard, but shook his head, trying to get a grip on himself again. "I'll just ask you never to make a creation like Kuznetsov again, then," he sighed. Then he looked at Kai. "Why are you taking my other soldier?"

"Cause he's going to be a leader, not a ordertaking underling that do not feel. The grandson of Voltaire is going to be our superior as soon as Voltaire dies, so I have to take care of his upbringing." Kai rolled his eyes, and Maxim saw this. The big soldier hid his smile behind his hand, knowing the will of steel burned in this body. That boy was adamant, and didn't have the beliefs his grandfather had.

"Good luck with that kid, then. I'll go back to my soldiers." Maxim was amused by the assignment Boris had given himself. He knew it was never going to work for the purple-haired.

* * *

That was that, and nearly on time! I'm happy ^.^ And stressed, gotta go!!!!

OR! Well, I loved the way I made the flashies and the things that happened in them. Wanted to explain how I think they made a boy a machine ^.^

Enjoy in joy and I REALLY gotta go now!!


	5. Weaknesses and strengths

Sooooo... I'm still busy, but I stopped stressing. Since I don't have any family-plans, the only thing stopping me from writing all the time is the school ^.^ (SILENCE, SCHOOL!!!! I KILL YOU!! ) I have to admit, this story is getting to my head, and I can't concentrate in school because I just think about to write, write, write. Though the deadline on every Sunday is probably the best thing ever, as it forces me to write on in stead of laying it in the drawer and let it be, as it has happened for far to many of my other stories.

Oh, am I the only one who is freaking tired of snow? It's supposed to snow today. Freaking SNOW!!! We already have had three long months with that crap, I DON'T WANT ANYMORE!!! I love the desert, NOT the snow, it's beautiful, but I HATE THE COLD!!!!!!! STOP IT, WHOEVER RULES THE WEATHER!

Disclaimer: Own nothing, forgot to tell you in last chapter, but just wanted to remind you that I didn't.

Oh, and I didn't get totally done with my other chapter (as you have seen, the last scene is very short, and there is a reason for that xD), so we start with 'the wrong POV', but I will try to make sure we end with 'the right POV'. By the way, thank me for shortening the scene if you want to read on, or else I would have sent one of my lesser good stories with my sweety-sweetheart (Gaara) instead of having a new chapter up.

I don't have much else to say, so I'll go on to my beloved reviewers ^^ I have never published anything anywhere, and I really can't believe some people actually think I'm good O.o:

FlamingIce94: I answer you first cause you reviewed first ^^ Lucky you xD I know it's long, far too long, I want to keep my chapters at about 9-10 broad pages, but it got up to 13-14 and weren't even done! (As I have said, and it was my busiest week in this year, so damn me for having to write so much xD) Anyway, all the personalities are based on my thoughts of them in the show, and I have at least one prove for each personality I have given (An example, Boris has a bad habit of losing his temper a lot, I let him lose his temper, another example, when we first really see Bryan, it's said it's going to take a very long time before his feelings get back, I let his feelings be nearly unreplenished (don't think it's a word, but whatever xD)). Though I screwed Brooklyn up in last chap -.-' (It's only one place and it's not bad, but it's still damn annoying) I'm not gonna tell where, cause you won't see it unless I say it ^^

GatewaysDiary: (Wow, you reviewed twice in a row o.O THAAAAANKS!!!! O.o) Well, I normally don't write a review without finding something to criticize (even if it's the stupidest thing) cause a criticizing review helps the author more than one that praised you to heaven. Love to get the critic, as I already know I'm not perfect and it helps me stop or fix my mistakes. Though the double-word thing, I know, it's my worst nightmare in writing tasks o.O As you might have found out, I had no time when I posted the fourth chapter (I was on my way to a family-thingy, hate family-thingies, I'm not a social type -.-' ), so I didn't have time to look it through. In the fourth, I have an excuse, but if I have done it in the other chapters, I simply was lazy xD And, well, Bryan is a weird fave of mine, as he aren't a fave but more one that I pity so hard I have ended up loving him. He is by far the most hurt of the Blitz-boys, and the fact that he doesn't see it himself is the thing that makes him pitiable. And Rei is my second- or third-fave in beyblade, I think... He's cooooool xD Though I have to admire you!!! (I myself can't read anything where my absolute fave aren't in... I feel... Evil compared to you xD) Oh, yeah, and you learn as they learn, that's my way of doing things ^^ I still have maaaaany secrets xD

That was long answers for the reviews o.O

One more thing! I'm sorry, but one more freaking thing! The song Black Rose by Trapt is having a lot to do with a part of my story (not as big a part as Room of Angel has, but...)

Anyway, think that was it ^^ On, on, on, before I drive myself crazy xD Oh, except for one thing! On Bryans part, past is still kinda sticky. While Kai... Is Kai, I won't let you know his deepest, deepest thoughts xD The family-picture is his sticky past ^^ If Voltaire doesn't count...

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Weaknesses and strengths

* * *

In this room, it was torches that lit. Long shadows danced all over, even over the desk in the middle of the room. The cold breeze that swept in with them made the dance even wilder, the flames brushing and curling around the dry wood. It was a funny thing, when the halls with the... he couldn't stop thinking of them as prisoners... was lit with the weak, yellow glow of fluorescent lamps. Might be that it got warmer in a room with living, breathing fire, but it didn't have to be the reason. It just sounded cruel, though it _was _Boris and Voltaire that was in charge.

The black blade was still in his hand, and his grip tightened at the thought of all that it meant. Much pain was surrounded by that thing, and not only in the memories of his betrayal. That bit beast was pure evil, drawing him in every moment he held it, enticing him to to keep it, to use it and to have 'power'. They knew its powers, and they weren't afraid to use it on him, or let him use it on others.

In here, there were screens too, placed left for the desk, but these were watching the trainingroom. In one corner, the right back for the desk, under one of the torches, another of those metal boards stood, the chains just hanging there, glistening cold in the swirling light of the flames. Letting the blade drop into the pocket, Kai lifted his hands to watch the bloodred, rough bracelets his last meeting with such a thing had given him around the wrists.

"Sit down, please," Boris said, making the violet eyed lift their gaze to stare at him. The purple haired held an offering office chair to him. Kai wasn't interested. Everything that annoyed that creep was worth it, so he placed himself with his front towards the screens, leaning in against the wall on the right of the desk. Boris sighed and sat down in his own chair, trying to hide the beginning anger that painted his face.

"So, Kai, you still don't want to talk to me?"

That's a stupid question.

"Then I'm just going to teach you like this. It's you, not me, who makes it one sided, remember that."

Sure, if that's what you want.

"First lesson is strengths and weaknesses."

I have to admit, that sounds... interesting.

"We all know everyone has strengths and weaknesses. If you want a weakness of mine you think you can use, I can tell you that my weakness is my temper."

I know that already, it just that I have no plans that can make me use it to my advantage.

"Of course, everyone has more strengths and weaknesses than just one. Sometimes, the weakness is also your strength. My temper might get me to do rash decisions sometimes, but I can turn it around. It makes me not afraid to punish people for their failures, for one thing, unlike if it was, well, someone like your mother that was in charge. She never would raise her voice, nor would she be able to punish anyone for their fails. You would have felt that, if you got to live with her in the teenage years. She would be unable to show you the boundaries. Now, you just hate me for saying this."

Hell yeah I hate you for that, you shit. Don't talk about my mom. Though... You _are _saying some true things. My mom was weak. Though I do not remember her, I know that.

"Your own weakness is the same as your whole male part of your family always have been. The lust for power. It's what let you betray your friends, back in the world championships in Russia..."

I _am _aware of that, thank you.

"... but it's also what makes you oppose us now. You know you have the power to say no to us, that power makes you prove to us that we have _no _power over you. But that same lust for power confuses you when you have Black Dranzer in you hands. You know it's wrong, and yet, it's... tempting. Am I right?"

Finally opening his eyes, the slate glared at Boris, only to see Boris not staring at him. Boris had turned himself towards the screens, watching the people as they bladed or trained, or whatever they did. To his surprise, the slate saw Brooklyn control the hard metal system blade as easy as his old blade. He had been sure the prodigy at least would have had to fight with that thing for, yeah, five hours or so, even if he was a prodigy. It was half an hour since, and it reacted... Greatly.

"Tala is too kind." That didn't sound like the Tala Kai knew. He watched and saw Tala nearly falling in to the hall as he wavered in. He was even supported by the soldier, Maxim, but he was only barely standing. "He hides it well, but he cares to much for others." Kai was about to close his eyes again, not believing a word, until he saw Maxim look away from the redhead. Immediately, the feverish, blue eyes looked around, probably searching to make sure his team mate was safe. As soon as Maxim looked back, the concern left the face, leaving it cold and sick, the sweat flooding off him like a waterfall. He wasn't supposed to be in there. He should have a bed and sleep it all out.

"He's easy to threat into doing things he don't want to, even if he make a lot of trouble out of it. He looks tough until seconds before the bomb spring, then he give in. Most will take a hostage and threaten to kill them, and Tala knows that they mostly are not going to kill the hostage when they threaten like that. So he waits, until the knife is lifted over the one he's supposed to protect with no hesitation, then he finally tells them stop. If he finds out they'll kill the person even if he cooperate, he oppose them again, ready to live through his friend going to death believing a friend had betrayed him. He's a hard nut to crack, being as stubborn as any man I have met. He can even surpass you on that point, but since you seem to be friends, I suppose you don't have to hear that." Boris turned around and watched Kai again, who had decided to close his eyes just as he saw Bryan get up to Tala and Maxim on the screen. He didn't want to let that man see his interest in such a wicked subject as pointing out flaws that made you able to manipulate an opponent. Or friend. "But the fact that he is caring deeply for his underlings makes him a leader you are willing to trust."

Unlike someone else, Kai thought and suppressed a snort, still not opening his eyes, not letting the violets bloom, as it was what Boris wanted him to.

"Of course, there are weaknesses that aren't strengths, like there is strengths that aren't bad. Mostly, the weaknesses that is only bad is the physical, while the strengths that is good are mental. If your personality is making you a strong person, then no one can take it from you or use it against you, while if you are mentally weak, you can get strong friends that helps you out of it or simply give you a good relationship to others. If your body is weak and gets sick a lot, you can't train it to get strong, if you are born fat, it can be impossible to get thin, you know it all. While a strong body has to get nurtured, or it can't be used for anything. Tala has gotten a weak body." Kai couldn't believe that. Any beyblader had to be persevering. Or they could end up exhausted and, if the battle was hard enough, in mortal danger. So, this time, the snort slipped through his defense and reached Boris' ear. "It's true. But he hides that too. Like you, we have taught him that weakness is a wrong thing, so he is pushing himself to the limit to hide the fact of him and his body's flaws. If you want proof, you can think of his reaction after he fought Garland. Garland gave him the same treatment as Bryan and Spencer, but who woke up a few hours later and who was in a life-threatening coma for a month? Right now, his body is fighting hard against the wounds he got, and where you and most of the others would win that battle, he's losing. If we don't look after him until the fever gets down, you, me and he himself know what will happen. I bet he is only in that room there for his own stubbornness."

I still can't believe you. Though I don't remember well, I remember him from the abbey. He was strong, his body too. Someone everyone looked up to for his endurance and strength.

"I don't think Bryan have found out yet, though, but that doesn't matter. No, that doesn't matter for our business with Tala. Well... It might be the worst thing about the Cyber-Tala incident." Not able to stop himself, Kai opened his eyes and burned holes in the back of Boris' head, him having turned to the screens again. It was only by luck that he didn't open his mouth and scream what he had in mind. Creep. Fucking creep, that deserved to burn in hell. Destroying another person's body for own gain. But it wasn't unlike Boris, seeing the other things he had done to people for power and wealth. But Kai believed his words now.

"I can teach you to work out the weaknesses and strengths, just by watching people walk, talk and interact with other people. All you have to do is to be willing." Kai closed his eyes again, not going to take the offer. Or turn it down. It was... Tempting. So damn tempting he hated himself for not turning away and run. He heard Boris wheel over to the desk and press a button on... whatever it was. "Bring Bryan in. Tell him he's getting his punishment for not following orders, then he won't complain." He heard Boris move again, but couldn't understand the sounds, so he slowly opened his eyes. Boris had turned to him and tilted his head slightly. "Everyone has a weakness. Even the thing that I fought so hard to get the weaknesses out of. I'm going to show you how you punish such a thing when it doesn't listen."

* * *

The training room was filled with people. They kept themselves divided in each group, a few unknown talents getting moved from block B to C, a few naturals getting moved from A to B. No people got put down a block, though some of the lesser sportsmen and some of the not so experienced people in the B-block might not deserve to be where they had been placed. Looking after everything with a strict look and fast eyes was Katyenka, she was anywhere someone tried to cheat in the fitness-part or having a break in the blading-part. Maxim had gone soon after Kai and Boris had left, but that only mattered for the C-fitnesspeople, that now could go at it more humanely.

The emerald-eyed didn't care about that, though. Instead, he cared about him going against Garland now where he refused with the weaker. Yeah, sure, it might have been good, he would win over the lesser, but Bryans calculating mind knew that Garland wasn't a good opponent. He watched the light blue hair and violet eyes with no emotion, not knowing what he would feel towards this person if he could feel. He couldn't mimic any expressions he had seen before, so Garland now met the emotionless genius that had been 'furious' last time they met.

"What's wrong, Bryan? I know we don't have so many good memories, but you don't have to look... Dead." It was obvious the material artist didn't like the expression he met. But the gray-haired just shrugged, still trying to think of a fitting expression. He found nothing, and looked away, waiting for the signal from the guard.

"3! 2! 1! GO!"

This time, two blades hit the dish, circling around each others as soon as they possible could. Bryan looked at his blade. How he hated that blade. It was always causing trouble. Or, that was a lie, and he knew, but he still hated the blade. Black flames filled his dark inside, the hate burning, and suddenly... He heard a gasp, and knew what had happened. "I'm sorry, Garland. It wasn't supposed to happen. I haven't played like that since my fight with Rei."

"You don't _sound_ sorry," Garland snarled, wiping the blood off his cheek. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"More than you know. It's just a little wind, and the fact that I don't sound sorry doesn't mean I meant to do it. By the way, you sent my team mate into a coma, while I just gave you a little cut. It's not that bad." As they talked, their blades continued to swirl around each other, Garland having the upper hand in the battle even though he was angry.

"I didn't do that on purpose, I didn't know he would react that bad to the attack!" Garland was immediately on the defense in that matter, him being utterly ashamed about it.

"And I didn't cut you on purpose, so then, we are even." Them being even, coma versus tiny, tini cut on the cheek. It seemed unbalanced, and Garland glared at him for a while, trying to understand what was going on in that mind. Honestly, he didn't feel good about the incident with Tala, but it was first long after he had found out the redhead hadn't woken up again. The green-eyed didn't react to the glare, but just watched the other with that dead face, still cracking his mind for the right expression.

Garland found this mind more not human and more twisted up than the one's of his former team mate's. He stopped digging for human thoughts and went back to the battle, unconsciously rubbing the still bleeding cheek. He'd never thought Bryan as scary, but that was beginning to crumble under the weight of what he had seen, or rather what he hadn't seen in that mind. Their blades met head-on, Falborg flew out of the stadium, Bryan was the weaker blader.

The yellow blade rolled all the way over to the other stadiums, Bryan just looking at it. Then the green eyes shifted over to look at the lightblue-haired, tilting the head slightly, smiling a little with what would have been respect towards a stronger opponent. Then, he changed his expression to the one that people used when they were talking business. "I have a question to you," he said, his tone serious as he manipulated his voice into caring, too.

"About what?" Garland asked, getting more and more confused about this person. He was afraid it might be an unpleasant question, but it would be rude to turn the other one down without knowing if it was a question he actually would answer. The gray-haired nodded towards Brooklyn, the expression faltering as he didn't get any response on it.

"Does he see things? He says weird things, sometimes, as if he knows something that is beyond our reach. I don't think that he is hallucinating, it's not that, but he's in the cell beside me, so I was just trying to understand."

"Brooklyn has visions," Garland said, in some way delighted that it was only that he was asked. "I don't know how it works, but he always seems to know what's going on. Probably one of the reasons for him to rarely, and that means never, wanting to do anything about anything. In his head, it has already happened, so he do not care- Hey, where are you going?" The bluenette glared after the emotionless as the emotionless strode forward towards an entry, the one where Kai and Boris had left. Tala was right there, though the captain was with the officer, Maxim. It was clear that the captain's body was weakening fast, him even unable to stand up straight.

"Why can't you just keep your place, you... thing?!" Maxim sneered, looking at Bryan getting out of the group of people, again not following the orders Boris' people had given. Bryan ignored the words, his eyes and mind on Tala. But Tala, on the other hand, was staring at Maxim with anger in the blurry, blue eyes.

"How's it going, captain?" Bryan asked, immediately over at Tala's other side to support him. This made Tala unable to hit Maxim as punishment for his words towards Bryan, but the icy glare still pierced its way through the bearded man's skin. Tala was not going to let it be, and Maxim nearly jumped as that look startled him. The redhead was far younger, not nearly as tall and very sick, but his feeling of protection was as the lioness for her cub.

"Do _not_ call him thing or anything like that, understand? He's is a person, and it's not his fault human beings are freaks. Threat him as any other, cause he is nothing less than them! I don't care if he scares you or you hate him for the faults he is not responsible for having, show him the respect you show to any other human! He deserves it more than most!" the redhead sneered back at the man, Maxim beginning to build a deep respect for the red-haired young man. "He is able to think as anyone else, you know, he is cleverer than the most! Remember, it was him that decided to go over here, he wasn't ordered by anyone! He is no machine." The green-eyed patted his captains shoulder, getting his attention.

"Well, captain, now where we are talking about respect... Not to pull you down, but you are the one talking about me as if I'm not here." It was a fact, and it was the embarrassing truths, but Tala simply put a weak smile on to his sweaty face. The eyes were still blurry, unfocused by the fever that raged his body.

"If it had bothered you, I would be that happiest captain in the world, Bryan."

"Captain?" Maxim asked, looking confused from one to the other. Bryan opened his mouth to come with an anodyne reply, but Tala stopped him with a look and turned his head to make sure they didn't confuse the soldier to much. He already knew both what Bryan had been about to answer and what Maxim was thinking about in the matter of him being a captain.

"I'm the captain of the bladingteam the Blitzkrieg-boys," Tala said. "It's not like I'm even old enough to be in the military yet. Or want to get a soldier at all. I have already seen guns enough for an entire human life. And now, go over to your little soldier-wannabes and let Bryan and I be." Maxim was about to complain about it, but Tala was steel and just glared him down. "I am too weak to train right now, and if you are lucky, I'm dead tomorrow, and then you can have all the time you want to train Bryan you could dream of. Get out of our way and do your job instead of wasting your own time." At first, the bearded soldier felt angry about the way the redhead thanked him for helping him inside. But then, he thought that the two boys must have grown up the same place. One of them had ended up as an order-following monster, the other made sure never to trust too many people. But at least, he thought, they was able to keep together.

"What am I supposed to do?" Bryan asked, him getting Tala over to the bench as the redhead had ordered. He supported the whole bodyweight of his captain and slowly lowered him down to the seat. The blue-eyed sighed in relief as his body was released from the strain to took to stand up, even if it was others that held his weight. He opened his blurry eyes and shrugged, opening his mouth.

"_Do something, Bryan!" _

The terrified cry was not what the captain had said, right now at least, so Bryan asked again. "What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know..." _Their redheaded team captain was soaked in blood around his right shoulder, his breathing unsteady. He looked up at two of the three boys, leaving the last one to do his job with the shooting. He opened his mouth..._

"Is there nothing you can think about?" Bryan asked, still standing up before the bench. He didn't feel like sitting, so unless someone ordered him to sit down, he would stay standing at his own free will. Tala looked up at him, slowly shaking his head. The only thing he could hope for was that his body would behave and that whatever they had put in his bandages wasn't intended to kill him. Not that Bryan had to know, as the teen couldn't do a thing, and wasn't able to do anything either. Then, he looked closer at his team mate.

"What happened to your cheek?"

"I got whipped. Only once, though, so don't worry. He just wanted to make his point and wasn't as good with the whip as you. He aimed for my back and missed _that_ spot." The eyes of the redhead widened. _"Is there no way we can get another new team mate?" _Bryan just shrugged, watching the redhead still. The blue eyes looked down again, shaking his head.

"I'm sorry. I never meant to do it."

"It's okay. It's one of the best things that happened in my life."

"Yeah. And that's why I used five years on thinking you were a..."

"_... freak..." "...bastard..." "Why did they take him here...?" "...Thought he lived in that lab..." Bryan looked around in the dormitory, the residents staring at him with disgust. As if he was some kind of monster. He took the linens over to his new bed, which was two beds away from the nearest neighbor. He had gotten orders not to mix with these people, unless they mixed with him. And since he had heard their words, he was still blessed with the loneliness of having no feelings. Though you must admit some of them had reason to hate him, as his bladingstyle had marked their bodies harder than the whip was able to. _

_Those kids was still not set. Neither superiors or inferiors. So he didn't _want _to mix with them. He just made his bed and sat on it, watching the others do their everyday life as if he had never come. He was a no one, so why talk to him? He was lower than a no one, so why even think of him?! With the arms around his knees and the back against the wall, the green-eyed looked up at the camera and tilted his head questioningly, as if asking Boris what he had planned. Then, suddenly. Bryan mimicked them._

_The next morning, they were waked up by Boris himself. From the expressions on their faces, this wasn't normal, but Boris didn't scare Bryan. Nothing frightened him, or made him feel warm, or happy, or anything. Not anymore. _

"_As you all know," Boris persuading voice said, "you have gotten a new kid in your dormitory. As you probably know, his name is Bryan, and he needs to get on a team." This made the other kids mumble silently to themselves, no one wanting him. "Tala." The redhead stepped forward, not saying a word. He was a favorite of Boris', so he felt sure he was not given the freak. "Take your team out the hall. I have to try something with you." Spencer and Ian was by their captains side immediately, and they strode out the door. Boris turned towards the green-eyed boy, but even before he said anything, the boy had read his movements, being around his superiors a lot. _

"_Yes, Boris, sir?" he asked, waiting for the respond._

"_Come with me, please." The others knew that Tala, for once, had drawn the shortest straw. Bryan just followed right behind Boris out to the team, and he heard one of the other boys mumble 'dog' after him. He didn't care. Of course, Bryan didn't care. _

_They stopped by the other team, the three boys looking slightly grumpy. Bryan looked at Ian, then up at Boris. "Why is he so short?" Immediately, the smaller boys head turned red with anger, but Bryan didn't care. "Is it in his genetics? It doesn't seem right, cause normal people is far bigger..."_

"_He's younger than you," Boris answered, him being slightly amused though it wasn't fitting into his plans. Ian gridded his teeth in an attempt to not scratch the throat out of the older boy. His height was about the worst thing to talk about, as he was the youngest in the dormitory. His talents in shooting and ability to follow and make orders had let him get up four grades, making him about three-four years younger than the rest. _

"_What has age to do with size?" Bryan then asked, making the three team mates stare at him for his obliviousness. _

"_About everything. Why do you ask?"_

"_It doesn't come together with my knowledge. Is it also his younger age that makes his nose so big?"_

"_No, _that_ part is pure genetics," Boris said, as Ian jumped forward to punish the already hated gray-haired for his words about his looks. Only by luck, Spencer got a grip in his shirts collar. Bryan looked at the small, struggling with the big, absolutely not caring. "Stand in line!" Boris demanded as the two began to annoy him. All four of them being trained soldiers, though they were one ten-year-old, two nine-year-olds and one six-year-old, they got in line, Bryan ending with Tala and Spencer between him and Ian. "You are my four elite soldiers," Boris said, walking over to Ian's side. "I have made each of you what you are." He began to walk in front of them, stopping before Ian. "The ultimate soldier." He got to the next, Spencer. "The strongest blader." _(A/N he was at that moment)_ He stepped up to Tala, his eyes satisfied with the sight of the kid's stubborn glare. "The perfect leader." Boris went over to Bryan, a wicked smile crossing his face. "And a loyal and absolutely emotionless machine." The others shivered, Tala feeling worst. He hadn't forgotten the episode at Bryan arrival and how that boy had been shaking and crying. Emotionless... That kid hadn't been emotionless. It had been the most vulnerable kid he had ever met... So the redhead gave his page mate a nearly terrified glare._

"_Is there no way we can get another new team mate?" Spencer asked, but Boris gave him a death glare, making the blond winch. Boris looked them all over again, his eyes showing the anger he felt about their behavior._

"_Sir, I have another question," Bryan said, looking into Boris' eyes, and the wicked man nodded his approval to the question. "Are they superiors or inferiors?" Boris smiled again. _

"_Tala is a superior. The others, you have to find out yourself." _

_The gray haired nodded, understanding, and looked the two others over once again. He didn't know what to think of them yet. Superior, inferior, superior, inferior...?_

"_I have a special assignment for you. We'll simulate a scene of war, you proving your skills as a team. A new team member have to be tested, so you will show me whether or not you are able to work together. The three of you, I don't doubt a minute," Boris said, looking at Tala, Ian and Spencer. "But Bryan is different, as you have learned already. It's a test to see if he is actually able to be on a team. He hasn't had to do with any other kids or people the last many years you have known of him, so it's uncertain if he can use teamwork." The three nodded, wondering if they should make sure it didn't work between them. A man in a white coat came in. "Follow the scientist." The four kids bowed, turned and began marching, Bryan being the last. _

_They came to an enormous room, so big Bryan was unable to see the walls. Looking the place over, the green eyes saw a blown up field on the opposite side of a trench. A dead tree stood in the bare earth and dead bodies lied all over, but Bryan couldn't determine whether it all was real. "This is a recreation of-"_

"_The World War I battlefield," Bryan said, looking over the plain again. _

"_Want to continue for me, or shall I finish?" the scientist asked, ironically and annoyed at the genius kid. He wasn't one of those who had worked with the kid, so he didn't know the obvious reaction that would come._

"_We are recreating the scene of the World War I, us being on this side and the enemy on the other. The enemy..." Slight hesitation as he seemed to think. "Is trained soldiers, some of Boris' best guards. As far as I can see, even the weapons are created like the times, which will mean they are difficult to handle and not very accurate. We are proving our teamwork, as we are fighting with real weapons. Ones fault can be ones death, and it's not necessarily the one who did the fail. We risk our life to get the best of our abilities." The scientist stood staring at the kid. Then he raised the hand to hit the kid, not sure if that kind of audacity meant punishment. The kid seemed to serious to be fooling around. "Oh, and we are the Germans," Bryan continued, looking one of the guns closer._

"_Alright, yes, that's the plan. Get in position and wait for a signal." They did as they were told, and the signal was the first shot from the enemy. Bryan looked at the others, Tala telling them orders as his genius mind calculated every detail. They shot back, Ian being the most accurate when he had understood his weapons inaccuracy. Spencer only shot when he seemed sure of seeing movement on the other side. He still didn't like shooting. _

"_There is eleven enemies," Bryan mumbled, taking his gun up for the first time. He aimed for one of the enemies that moved about, and missed by little. The others looked at him as he took aim again._

"_You're sure?" Tala asked, sliding down to the bottom of the trench. The others followed, Bryan nodding on the way down. "How?"_

"_The pattern of their shooting. Unlike us, none of them have hesitated on shooting, being sure we are the weaker people and that they can take us down just for being kids. There are normally about twelve seconds between each shot. They shoot eleven shots, then there is a pause that breaks that pattern. They have the same weapons as we have, so they waste a lot of time reloading it. The first to shoot aren't ready when the last are done, so the pattern is broken by five seconds. Always the eleventh time." It seemed far over their head, and Tala looked up to see if he was able to see eleven enemies. The enemy had stopped shooting when the kids hadn't been in sight for long. Ten shots was heard shortly after each other. Realizing his idiocy, Tala jumped to the side, and in stead of hitting his neck and kill him off, the right shoulder was shot by the eleventh enemy. _

_Ian groaned, his anger getting him up to shoot and kill of those idiots that had shot his friend. Their redheaded team captain was soaked in blood around his right shoulder, his breathing unsteady. He looked up at two of the three boys, leaving the last one to do his job with the shooting. He opened his mouth, but first, no words came. "I'm sorry," Tala whispered. Bryan stood too, but he didn't take cover and brought himself in danger. He stared at the redhead, his expression confused. What was you supposed to do if your superior was down? _

"_Get down, you idiot! You'll get shot!" No I won't. It took a long time for them to reload, so he didn't have to go down yet.. He thought better when he stood... What did you do when a team mate was down...? Especially a superior... He didn't remember what he had been told... He didn't know anything about how to treat others, neither when you interacted or took care of their body... He was unable to comfort a crying person and oblivious about what you did to something as small as a bleeding scratch..._

_He let himself drop just as eleven shots were shot at him. Then he rose again, staring as Spencer looked for bandage to wrap around the wound. Tala's eyes flowed around unfocused as he watched the gray-haired, anger going through the blurry eyes."Do something, Bryan!" To him, it seemed the 'emotionless' was filled with horror._

_The stupidest thing he could do... wait... He looked to the side, over the plain. His team mate would be dead if they were out here much longer, and though he did not remember what the scientists said, dead team mates was a bad thing. He looked over to the other side, calculating the distance. Unlike the real scene of World War I, the trenches weren't so far from each other. The stupidest thing to do was the right thing to do. _

"_Ian, Spencer, let him be for no..." Were they superiors of inferiors? He didn't know if he had the authority to give them orders... So he decided to stay certain and not doing a mistake, and looked at Tala, dropping again as shots was going for him. This time only two, which didn't fit to his plan. They began to be more cautious with the shooting "Tala, I have a request. We leave you for the moment, as we run over to get done with the enemy, then the medics come to see you. We can't help you as long as this go on. We don't have the right equipment." No feeling. How could he talk so with no feeling when he had more pressure on his back than ever before. But the scientists had said he couldn't let a team mate die, so he had to do this and follow orders. _

"_You will get shot..." Tala said, trailing off. _

"_We have to make them shoot all their shots, then we run," Ian said, understanding the geniality in the plan. When one of his _friends _was in on the idea, it wasn't stupid, so Tala nodded. The three left rose from their position, and the enemy did what it was supposed to, still underestimating the enemy. Eleven shots. The three fell down once again, and finding the black flames that grew on his inside, Bryan sprinted over towards the other side. He didn't look back, didn't care if the others followed as he let himself be consumed by the feeling of hatred. _

_As he got over to the other trench, the first enemy rose his gun... His eyes widened when he saw the nine-year-old come running. Swinging the gun around, the enemy was hit by the end of it, and like an animal, Bryan jumped over towards the next enemy, his eyes shining the black hell that filled his inside. In his subconscious mind he heard the to others reach and try to kill of the enemy._

"When did you stop thinking that?" Bryan asked, not even sounding interested. He saw Garland come over towards them, but ignored the bluenette. The captain was more important, but he didn't know how he could help.

"You as a freak? Well... Until we got out of the abbey. It was first then I began to understand you. I respected your mind and your style of fighting, but I didn't see you as a person..." At least he was honest, though it wasn't really dangerous to say as the green-eyed wasn't able to be angry with him about it. He followed Bryans gaze and suppressed a shiver as he saw the teen that had sent him into a coma.

"Are you okay, Tala?" Garland asked, looking worried. "What have happened?" Bryan looked from on to another, not knowing if he should say anything. In conversations with more than one person mostly was a silent conversation for his part, unless ither things was required for him. And these two didn't seem very comfortable around each other.

"Boris happened," Tala said, trying to shrug, but ended up grimacing in pain. "I got whipped." A lot. Ten would have laid him down with a fever like the one he acted now, while the hundred had left him in what he was afraid was a near-dead state. He suppressed most of his true pain and how bad the fever actually was, forcing himself to act like someone who had been whipped before and that was able to take much, but hat found his limit at hundred. Not one that had found his death at the one hundred and one hit that by coincidence never was made. It would be easier to just lay down and die, that was what his body ached to do, but if he left Bryan, the gray-haired would end up with no one good to follow, and then Boris would make his move. He would survive this for Bryan and continue to be his 'superior'.

"Oh..." The lightblue-haired seemed to think about something to say. Boris might really _hate _the redhead.

"I don't hate you for what you did to us when we got to BEGA, Garland, unless you still think Boris is the nicest and best man you have ever met. _Then_, I would hate you. A lot." Garland really didn't understand these two. He looked over at Bryan again, Bryan who had made his face look worrying, but he felt like he looked at a mask covering the truth. Bryan looked over at him, then sighed as he was able to understand.

"Did you watch the first championships the Bladebreakers were in?" Garland shook his head, looking confused to Tala this time as Bryan didn't continue right on. But it was Bryan that explained, him dropping the act. He couldn't decide which face was the one he should use in this matter. Tala just looked sick, so he couldn't use the captain as inspiration. "I hospitalized Rei for over three weeks. The difference in our style is, or was as I mostly don't blade like that anymore, that you blade to get the blade stopped or out of the stadium, while I tried to break the opponent and always won by doing so. Rei is the last I hospitalized, but far from the first. You just bladed like everyone else, and that sometimes can be dangerous for the other opponent. I intently tried to kill everyone that bladed me."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Garland asked, the emotionless teen began to give him the creeps.

"It just proves that if I should hate you for sending me into a coma, I should hate my team mate far more for having hurt people intently in the past, and that is stupid. From the way you look at him, I know you have seen through his act. You must understand that he is the work of Boris, and that it was Boris who was the reason for his way of blading back then. It still happens, sometimes, but at least he understand that it's not a good way to blade now." Garland looked from one to another, just as one of the guards began to come over towards them. The two Blitzkrieg-Boys stared at the man, which made Garland turn too. "What do you want?" Tala growled as the guard came close enough to hear his weak voice.

"Bryan is getting his punishment for not following orders." Bryans eyes actually widened at the words, and something in him flipped over. Not following orders? Not following orders... _Not following orders_! He looked away from the guard and didn't fight back as he was taken away, the words still echoing in his head. Of course, he hadn't bladed with that one, but it hadn't been an order, he'd simply made sure not to hurt anyone... He always, _always_ followed orders,_ always_! Tala was his superior, he hadn't not followed orders from him!

He didn't know when or how, but suddenly, they were in front of a rough wooden door. His mind was only settling the uproar as the door was opened and Bryan could see the purplehaired man and the slate teen in the room. Looking from one to another, he began to wonder why the teen was with the old man. Was they...? No, Kai wouldn't.

"Come in, Bryan. You know how punishments work." Bryan nodded and walked inside, looking at Boris only this time. The guard left them, and making an expression of anxiousness, he once again looked from the man to the slate teen. Why was that kid there? He was too clever to make that mistake again... Though he had done it many times before. The punishment for looking away from the man came soon, and he nearly fell from the impact of Boris' hit. He looked up again, pleasure running from the cheek to the rest of his body, and the inside of his cheek let warm blood flow in to his mouth. "So, Kai, can you imagine how to punish something that do not feel pain? He's obviously enjoying this." Another hit, this time on his other cheek. Once again, Bryan nearly fell.

Boris turned away, and Bryan gave the rest of the room a look around, only getting pleasure out of his pained cheeks. On the screens, he could see Garland still be with Tala. Brooklyn seemed to have been playing enough with the blade and had placed himself with the back against the wall, getting consumed by those little insects he had found. In one was Hillary seen too, her fighting to get the blade in to control. He could see them all, some of them zoomed in on one spot, others watching a larger part of the big room. He turned, and looked at a black metalplate like the one he had been strapped to as a kid in his 'greeting' before he looked back at Boris, who turned from an ever silent Kai. But as soon as Boris turned, the violets opened and looked to the green eyes. Their eyes met, just as the pain shut through the body of Bryan. Bryan's gaze dropped, but he didn't do anything to stop Boris from doing his punishment. He had always been told that punishment should be taken without winching, so he stood tall, though his hands was curled up to fists. His eyes, though, was stranded on the floor.

The gray-haired teen didn't see the disgust that flowed in Kai's face, nor that Boris turned away, still having a tight grip to Bryan's crotch. "You know what the funny part is?" Boris said, making Kai look away from the humiliation of Bryan. He looked into the crimson eyes of Boris, anger filling him. He wanted to help the other teen, but then the man had something to use against him. So Kai just closed his eyes as Boris turned back to Bryan. "I found this out by coincidence. The most important weakness I found without looking for it." Yeah... That was sooo funny.

* * *

There were dark and silent where he laid, on that hard, uneven bed. The others weren't back from the training, which meant that he could not find peace from the image that still stood in his mind. Normally, Bryan was not considered a friend of his or anything like that, but it still raged him that he had let it happen. He had to stay silent, but then, he could still have jumped forward and hit Boris, so he would let go of the older teen. It had been embarrassing to watch, and yet he hadn't hit that idiotic man! But then, they might let her get hurt as his punishment...

Fuck her. Why should he care?! She could just go back to the flaming hell were she was born! He didn't care!

... Or ... No. He did care. He cared to the point where it felt like insanity. He couldn't let anything happen to her... She had never let him down, not even when he had left her. She had always been there, and she had even saved his life once... Her life was worth millions of others. He couldn't, and wouldn't, let her get hurt. He had to cooperate, at least to the point were he still didn't talk. He didn't care about his father, only about her.

But he should still have done something. It had been so wrong! He shouldn't have just let it happen. He didn't have to be violent, only prove his point... He was so confused that he did not see Max and Tyson get back to the cells, he only stared up at the ceiling with an empty face.

"_I think Kai has gone to Boris' side."_

Kai snapped his head to the side, his eyes focused on the airhole. It was about the size of a brick and placed over the bed. Sometimes, a light breeze flew out from it. But he hadn't heard anything before... Was he hallucinating? Was it because he was so caught up in the memories that he imagined Bryan saying such things about him? It seemed only a whisper, but it was absolutely Bryan. And Bryan didn't whisper right now, he was sure. How he was sure, he didn't know. "Bryan...?" His voice was hoarse in lack of use, and he said it so softly that he himself nearly didn't hear it. He couldn't let the microphones hear him speaking.

But he didn't get a response. He sat up on the bed, listening for the other person.

"_He was at Boris' office, that's why. He didn't stop my punishment." _Oh, damn you, Bryan, thanks for reminding! But Kai couldn't blame that emotionless bastard to come to that conclusion. He would have thought the same, even though he there was a big difference between those two. _"No, I don't believe that." _If Kai hallucinated, would he then imagine the gray-haired having a conversation?

"Bryan...?"

No response. He probably didn't speak loud enough, so it didn't matter anyway. He sat up and walked towards the bars. Just as he began to walk, the next sentence was said.

"_Just thought I would tell you, because you..." _

It faded away before he got to the bars, and he turned again, thinking for a long time. Then he walked over to the bed again with new hope. He sat down and listened, waiting for the one to get closer to whatever connected them. _"-o get guns. I've already got one." _What were they talking about now? It was silent for a long time before he talked again.

"_We are not leaving Tala. I'm not going without him, and I'm the one who can handle the guns..." "...Sure, we'll get those two too, and Kai _if _he should be on our side. We need as many people as possible."_

Now they talked about fleeing. And guns... they didn't know that it all was getting recorded. That Boris could see everything they did and hear everything they said. He had to inform them that. If Bryan ever came over. The gray haired teen was silent for far too long, and the slate shifted his weight anxiously. "Bryan...?"

"_Who's there?" _The voice held no emotion, but only slight hostility. Kai knew that the other teen whispered now, which meant he was closer. Kai waited a moment, not knowing what to say. Bryan probably wouldn't trust 'Kai', so he had to think strategic.

"K..."

* * *

He had been there ever since his punishment had ended. Boris had claimed the others were coming soon, but soon felt like and hour ago, and his hand never left his still-hurting crotch. The purple haired man was stronger than he looked, and that only made it hurt even more. The green-eyed was on the bed and curled up protectively in a fetal position. He had nothing to do, and couldn't find pleasure in this kind of pain. Sure, he had tried it before, but it was so long ago...

Finally, something came to relieve him. Footsteps, not rolling thunderous down the hall, but still footsteps of many people. He forced himself up, forced himself to ignore the pain for something else. Tala, for instance, was sick. And they were trapped in a black kinda building. And Ian might be alive in another building. And an old team mate of his seemed to have chosen the wrong side for the... It was the second time. May be the third. He did not remember.

One of his pale hands caught the bar, and the gray-haired teen looked down the hall for his captain and inmates. Or what they were. The came down after the sound of footsteps had raged for what felt like ten minutes. Armed guards followed them all the way down, but that weren't so interesting. It seemed Tala had gotten it better, as he fought himself down the halls without support from anyone. Sure, most of it was just him being stubborn, but that didn't matter much. His stubbornness hadn't helped him earlier, in the training room, so he had to be better.

They found their places themselves, no one making to much trouble. Bryan began to wonder if the only one still ready to oppose Boris was Tala, but chose to cut off the thoughts. The others hadn't given up, they were just tired. Training was hard, of course it was...

"I think Kai has gone to Boris' side," he told as soon as the guards were gone, which made most of the before-tired people wake up. Hillary and Tala got over to the bars to stare at him, while everyone else in their personal community watched at him with insecurity. Only Brooklyn didn't show, and Bryan couldn't see what he was doing.

"Why do you think that?" Hillary growled immediately, putting her hands around the bars. Her knuckles got all white. "He..."

"What are your reasons for assuming it, Bryan?" Tala cut her off. He knew Bryan never took rash assumptions, and mostly was right in what he said.

"He was at Boris' office, that's why. He didn't stop my punishment," Bryan answered Hillary, then turning to Tala again. His sick captain frowned deeply, and though Bryan didn't now the feeling, the words hurt the redhead. He assumed the slate as a good friend, not a sometimes-is team mate. Knowing that the young Hiwatari might have given in to his grandfather felt nearly as bad as knowing Spencer had died.

"And there is no way he didn't stop it because he was in unable to? Like he was bound or paralyzed or something?" Hillary asked, not ready to believe his words. Kai might be... Well, Kai, but he was a strong person and though he wasn't ready to help everyone, he was ready to oppose Boris. Kai hated Boris, so Kai had to be physically unable to stop the hated man.

"No, I don't believe that." Bryan looked them all over, and heard something from the other side. He turned, and saw Julia watch them. She hadn't showed herself before... and since her brother died, he didn't have to wonder. Her brother had died, and most people didn't want anyone to see them cry. Without having the knowledge to be sure about it, he let himself make that conclusion.

"Kai might have a plan," she said. "He is clever, though I do not know him very well."

"I'm not sure I believe that," Tala said. "I see him as a friend, but he has a part of him that... Seems to long for power. He might have been given a offer he couldn't say no to. Be all have our bad sides. Kai have turned his back to people before for his own gain."

"Don't be so pessimistic," Enrique said. The blond Italian liked the slate teen a lot, though they never had any real relation to each other. He looked from one to another. "Even if he has done many wrong things in the past, we must remember he always changed his mind in the end. He might have a fascination of power, but the wellbeing of his friends have won before."

"Just thought I would tell you, because you see him as a friend. Or, many of you do, at least. Spare you the pain of it coming as a shock. There is a chance he aren't with Boris at all, and simply didn't help me out because Boris has someone or something that means a lot to Kai. Everyone has someone they would die for, or kill for." Hillary stiffened as she remembered Rei's letter. Might it be the reason...?

"Oh, really?" Enrique snorted, looking at Bryan with a sarcastic face. "You too?" Tala clenched the bars tight at the insult, and looked behind himself to find something to throw at the blond. Playing on Bryan's old wounds. Show some respect, damn it!

But Bryan was calm – what a surprise. "Mine is Tala. For other reasons than you protect your people, of course, but I'll give my life for Tala." Tala stopped in middle of wavering over to the bed, feeling... honored. The anger that had controlled him until then stopped, and he turned to fall over to the bars again, walking through the mist that clouded his mind. "But that is not what I wanted us to talk about. We have to plan our escape. For one thing, we have to get guns. I've already got one."

"Why do we need guns?" Hillary asked, as she was not eager to use weapons. She didn't like guns, but the green-eyed didn't answer her. Instead, Tala shrugged and acted like it was the only thing they could do.

"You can only fight guns with guns, and they are armed," the redhead said coldly, leaning his sick head to one of the bars tiredly. "Do we have any idea where we are?" He looked them all over, receiving shaken heads from all his companions. Except for Enrique, who seemed to stare at the still-hidden Brooklyn. "We could just run out without knowing anything, but if we should be able to get out of this building without some kind of map, we might end up... Well, if we have ended up in the northern parts of Russia, for instance, we would die before we had been outside for an hour. If we are lucky, we are in a country with warm temperate climate. In those parts, the earth is mostly fertile and the winters aren't too bad, so we should be able to find food and survive the winters in the clothes we have now. If we are in the heat, we might not be able to find water, or food for that matter." Tala sure sounded optimistic.

The blond girl with brown eyes seemed to struggle, but decided to say something. Unlike the others, she hadn't known anyone from beforehand, so she had kept silent. "I think the aren't neither in a cold or a warm country. I would assume that the breeze from the airholes to be icy if it was in a northern temperate or polar belt at this time of the year, but the breeze is too cold to be from the hotter climates. We can't be sure, but we are most likely where he wants us to be." She paused, looking at them all with as shy look in the brown eyes. She saw their unsaid questions. "My name is Falak. It's the Arabic word for star. I lived in Egypt with my family, my mom was from Scotland, so I have her hair and my dad's eyes and skin..." She seemed still uncertain, but Hillary smiled reassuring. "I just wanted to tell what I think I know..." Tala smiled weakly, happy to have at least one more with them.

"But, well, how are we going to get any information? It would be best if we knew exactly where we are, and we still don't have a map over the building." Julia asked, looking from Tala to the others. The feverish blue eyes of the redhead closed as he shrugged, still leaning towards the bar with his head. "The chances of getting out without knowing how the building looks on the inside or how to get the guns, we are doomed. And how are we going to take Tala with..."

They were silent for some moments, Bryan trying to think of a plan. He had stopped listening for some moments ago, letting his mind calculate. How to get information... How to get guns... It felt like the first time his mind didn't have a plan. The blue eyes were still closed as the redhead himself answered the unspoken question. "If I'm not getting better, then I'll not worth your trouble. I might be the factor that makes you unable to escape." Called back to earth, the green-eyed turned to look at his captain. His eyes were more determent than anyone had ever seen them before, as he stated the fact he would fulfill.

"We are not leaving Tala. I'm not going without him, and I'm the one who can handle the guns."

The blue eyes opened, watched him so beautifully as the wolf held himself together by pure willpower. Through the fever, he smiled faintly, and shook his head. "Never thought I would see such a true determined look on you face..." he whispered, the word only just reaching the gray-haired teen.

"We have to find Max and Tyson too," Hillary said, and they all nodded. Those two, and Tyson especially, were some of the most important people they knew, Falak too as she was a blader. The bluenette was able to get into people's mind and get them on the right track, and had done it with many of them. He was a very good friend.

"Sure, we'll get those two, too, and Kai if he should be on our side. We need as many people as possible." He would let them do the stupid talking and sat back on the bed, trying to think. He couldn't find an answer, he couldn't find the solution. This equation had far too many unknowns for him to find the answer. Even _his_ mind had limit.

"_Bryan...?"_

He sat up abruptly, looking up. Where did that voice come from? It was so soft it sounded like the wind, but it had been his name... "Who's there?" he whispered just as silent as the unknown person. He didn't believe in ghosts, as they weren't logically able to exist. So he wasn't scared, even though he couldn't _really_ be scared. He simply didn't trust whoever find behind this voice, that was so silent he couldn't determine the person...

"_K... Kinda an influential helper."_

"I can't just trust whoever claims they want to help," he answered, his voice as emotionless and uncaring as always, looking at the hole in the wall the voice came from. Then he turned away, trying to act like nothing was happening.

"_Act like you do not talk to anyone. Speak softly." _

"I already do that."

"_Good. I have to prove myself, don't I? The whole conversation you had with the people around you has gotten recorded, both sound and sight. If I know Boris right, he will come to punish the main people of the opposition and make it look like it was a member that told one of his guards during training, so you won't each other. That you can't change, but I can tell you that my own camera is hidden as one of the big, black blocks. It has a slightly glossier surface. It's placed on the opposite corner of the bed." _Bryan looked around and found the block, and though the shadows hid it, its surface to the left was glossier.

"I've found the camera. I'll tell you that..."

"Guys, I think Brooklyn has lost i-" Enrique's words were cut off by a roar from the cell beside Bryan.

"GET ME OUT OF HERE, BORIS!!!!" Brooklyn cried, throwing himself to the bars. Bryan jumped forward to watch the citrinite-haired, and found an absolutely unknown person stand before him. The pale, pure face was twisted with insanity, the eyes wild and roaring like fire. He barred his teeth like an animal, and for a moment, Bryan was sure he saw canines in his mouth. "I.. have... to... see.. THEM!!" The aqua-eyed threw him into the bars once again, just as Boris in person and none other than Maxim came running. The citrinite-haired took his blade out and turned it towards the two, the darkness seeming to flow around him. Boris opened his mouth to say something, but the teen came first. "Get me out, or I'll lounge it."

"Brooklyn, what-"

"I HAVEN'T SEEN THE SKY FOR OVER 24 HOURS, get me OUT, Boris, or. I'll. Lounge. The. Blade. And. Destroy. Your. Work! _ALL _your work. DO YOU UNDERSTAND?!" He had lost it, as Enrique had been trying to say. Boris nodded. "You know what moths are? Moths are _beautiful_. But they are not butterflies. Or birds. Or cats. Or sun. Or trees. Or clouds. Or stars. They are _MOTHS_! Get me out, _now."_

"Shhh, Brooklyn, calm down now," Boris said, Maxim looking wide-eyed at the teen. Yeah, he hadn't thought he would see the lazy body as scary, but he hadn't imagined the other side of Brooklyn. The flaming teen had caused him to lose his words.

Zeus flew through the air, hit the lock of Brooklyn's cell-door and blew the door open. Brooklyn spread his arms wide as he looked at the blade raging the rest of the door, but as the only one Bryan didn't look at the teen. Instead, he was focused on the door getting smashed. "I'll break you work. If you don't. You know I can do it. If you don't."

"I'll take you out, I promise! Just calm down, we take you outside if you want it, okay?" Boris talked like you would to a kid, but it seemed to help him a lot with the orange-haired. The teen called back the blade, caught it as it flew up in the air, and Bryan left them before the two men got the psychotic teen down the hall.

"_-an, are you still there? Bryan, what happened?"_

"I'm here. My neighbor, called Brooklyn, just lost it, if you heard someone yell. What I was about to tell you is that we need a map over the building. That's all you get to know until I trust you, and it all depends on Boris' actions tomorrow."

"_Of course. I understand, I might be one of Boris' underlings and lead you into a trap. Though I heard you talk about guns. There is an armory in a room beside Kai Hiwatari's cell. You find that cell by going down all the stairs you can find, to the lowest level. Max and Tyson is on that level too. I'll put the map in that armory if I can find one."_

"I just have to trust you, then. And I'll act like I do not know anything, it's not like I'm stupid." Was he going behind the captains back? He might... Could he go on? Yes. Even if the captain didn't know what was happening, he did it for that blue-eyed teen. He would inform the superior that he had more information than he told, but he wouldn't tell what the information was. Tala was relying enough on the mind of his team mate not to ask anything that the calculator was forced to answer as a cause of his 'upbringing'.

Brooklyn came back before they were put to bed, the orange-haired saying sorry for his outrage. The outside really had been good for him, as he was both smiling and talkative. Bryan didn't talk to anyone, thinking about how to get out. And how to get Tala with him outside. And just who his unknown 'Kinda influential helper'. Or 'Kinda an influential helper'... Something was weird about that sentence... That night, Bryan fell to sleep hearing his new 'friend' mumble the text of a song... He didn't know the name, or the song itself. I seemed to be about someone killing their own mother... Or something like that... Coincidental...

_"You lie, silent there before me / Your tears, they mean nothing to my / The wind, howling at the window / The love, you never gave, I give to you. __You really don't deserve it / But now, there's nothing you can do / So sleep, in your only memory, of me / My dearest mother.__"

* * *

_

I actually got done with this on Saturday! Freaking Saturday!! O.o How the hell did I get so fast?!

Anyway, this is an important chapter (they all are, but even more hidden things are in this one ^^ Innocent meeeee...). I'm getting on the right track now, and the lengths of each person's parts should get more equal now. Kai is getting more important again, if you hadn't noticed ^.^ It seems kinda obvious ^.^

The scene with Brooklyn is moved from next chapter to this to speed things up a bit, as that scene is... something. I know (at least I think I know) that some of you wanted them to flee or try to flee at this time, but things has to happen and time has to pass by. So I'm sooo sorry, but at least I've speeded thing up for you!

And this is a little too long, with 12 broad pages. If you cut off last scene with Bryan, you have 9 pages, which is about my goal for every chapter.

So, enjoy in joy and kill the snowman! (Though it seems (and I'm cheering and dancing rag tag moves xD) that the snow is not coming today!!!!!!!!)


	6. Attractive, yet rejective

So, I have my written exams right this week, so normal school is off (yay), but instead, I'm plagued by nervousness. But without school (even with the exams on) I have about 11 more hours of writing, so, I should be able to make this one extra sweet ^^ (Am I making a dessert of something?! oO) I only have to read a little less Death Note...

Disclaimer: Me still no own, me wanna own, me wan Kai to kick Ty-butts ^^

Warning: Well, just to those that have forgotten since I haven't done it for... many chapters now, I think my last was Daichi in chapter three... Anyway, I kill characters, and enjoy it. Though it sometimes makes me sad for killing a fave, I enjoy that sadness even more ^^ I'm kinda cynical...

Another warning!: there is a scene in this chapter that forces me to take the story up a rank, so it's M now. That normally only means one thing, and... well, yes, you are right, though I'm not writing for the sex-scenes. It just freaking fits, so I can't help using the idea -.-' (By the way, I was in a crappy mood when I wrote the scene, dunno if you can feel it...)

REVIEWS!!!!:

GatewaysDiary: THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!! I'M SO GRATEFUL!!!!!! I didn't know I sometimes do the were-where-mistake, and with my upcoming written exam in English, it makes me drop one or more grades for doing that mistake. And I wouldn't look for it cause I simply assume I don't do it. Might find one or two slips, but... SO THANK YOU!!!! TAK!!! JEG ELSKER DIG!!! (It's danish, google translate if you want to understand. The translation actually fits) Anyway, on to the actual answer, this time it's me praising you, but anyway... I found your answer amusing, and I'm not sure if it was on purpose xD So, I'm kinda wondering if it's just my sarcastic, danish humour (yeah, it _is _there, it's no rumor, I believe we have one of the evilest national humor. Though the Australian humor is quite close to our own) or if you meant it to be funny. Now, we are actually going on to an actual answer (God, why do I write so many things that doesn't matter?! (And God, I _mean _the question))! But thanks for the critic, I'm really grateful. And overreacting a bit... but I mean it. And the praising part is important too, but I'm a very negative person, so I easily forget it and makes myself look like a... well, stupid, evil and irritating person-kinda-thing. I'm interested in history (and nearly every other 'science'-things like religions, biology, physics and such, I'm all over the not math-danish(it means English class for you)-civics things), so I couldn't help putting WWI in to it. I already has used some of Hitlers ideas and am going to talk about the fall of the Soviet (we have a lot of Russians, so...) In my opinion, WWI was far more terrifying in the battlefield between France and Germany than the battlefield of II, though the evil deeds in the concentration camps has made the II has made II more remembered than I. My favorite part for WWII is though the Japan-US-fights, but in Europe, that part is lessened in the school, so I have had to find out those part by myself. Anyway, the characters is a fight for me, I use a lot of time thinking about it, and I seriously have the feeling that I'm killing Kai's personality. Hope I'm not, but it's just feels like it... Anyway, I'm running the other chapters through sometimes and have found one or two slips I've made before, but it was only Brook's character-fail from chapter four and another slip in the same chapter. I'm trying hard to use all the things I've begun and maybe use the things I didn't know I've started (for example, had totally forgotten about the blond girl in the cell in front of Julias, now her name is Falak and she has an important role ^^).

So, that was it, and that was long, and I love to talk, so we are on, the story goes... ... ... ... ...

NOW!!!!!

* * *

Attractive, yet rejective

* * *

Today, again, the training room slowly got flooded with teens at the entrances and middle of the room, people with friends far apart sneaking themselves to talk with each other before the guards got into the room. A lot of the people, both boys and girls, was complaining to each other about the absence of baths and new clothes, as all had their own clothes and none had had a chance to get them changed. Others didn't care and complained about food or things like that. Nothing other than food, training, sleep had gone on, so the topics you could choose were limited for the uncreative mind.

In the corner, away from people, a figure stood with his back leaned to the wall. He had been there some time before the others came, as Boris had decided to make another 'lesson', about the rules of being a leader this time. Kai already knew what the man had told him, about the respect and lack of the same do to actions or missing actions, and the slate couldn't help thinking that the purplehaired could learn a lot by listening to his own words. In lack of obvious interest for his surroundings, the slate had his eyes closed.

He heard a pair of footsteps and was about to open his eyes and glare Tyson down, when he realized the sound of the footsteps belonged to someone who had a slower rhythm of walking. Probably longer footsteps, as the sound of the feet came closer fast though the feet hit the ground slow. The violet eyes opened to see the stranger, and he looked into apatite that forced chills down his spine. Yeah, he remembered his last two matches with Brooklyn, where one had ended with his victory and death. And he remembered the reaction of the citrinitehaired teen. Madness. No doubt Brooklyn had more power than Kai himself, or even Tyson, though the midnighthaired had been able to beat the white teen.

"Hello, Kai." The slate hummed to tell he listened and closed the eyes again, still not talking to anyone while Boris might hear. Brooklyn seemed to take his place beside him, leaning against the wall. "Wondered if you wanted to battle me," the white said, Kai not reacting this time. From what he had heard from Bryan yesterday, Brooklyn was in or watching the group when he did not 'lose it', so he had heard about them being suspicious towards him. Why did he want to battle? To kill him one more time? Didn't he think once was enough? Or was it actually just innocent curiosity of their abilities compared to each other?

Why was _he_ so suspicious? He opened his eyes and watched over the crowd. He saw Bryan and Tala, Bryan watching him closely, but emotionlessly, Tala looking both hurt and uncertain in his direction. Tala was in the group of people, or had heard the suspicion from Bryan. The slate didn't know which yet. He eyes continued to scout and found Hillary, looking anxiously at him. She was a part of the group. The rest of the crowd, he couldn't determine.

"Do you want to?" Brooklyn didn't seem concerned at all, but suddenly, Kai got even more suspicious. That guy didn't do anything without being forced to. He had been in BEGA, so he knew that, and he even had seen it yesterday. The slate looked at the citrinite for a long time, the citrinite looking lazily at him. Yeah, it didn't fit his personality. The citrinite wouldn't even bother with taking him down if the white was certain he was an enemy. What the hell was that guy doing, asking him to battle?

"Then, it's a no, I guess." Brooklyn pushed himself away from the wall and took a step, that actually _was _longer than the ones Tyson took. The slate had had right, but that wasn't what he was thinking about. The slate took his fingers around the wrists of the citrinite, and Brooklyn turned again. They looked into each others eyes and knew that a battle was set up just as the guards called people together.

They got into line, Kai the last in the row while Brooklyn ended in the middle. Tala and Bryan had placed themselves besides each other, no surprise there, as Tala still weren't sure on his feet and Bryan was ready to grab him. Maxim began to walk in front of them, looking them all over. "The same as yesterday go over to the machines. I would like Tala to join you once he is healthy." He looked the redhead over, but Tala was not one to complain about unimportant things. "Instead, you are with the bladers. If you feel worse, you go sit on the bench. I highly recommend you to do that already."

"And I highly recommend you to shut up and keep out of my decisions," Tala snorted, not eager to listen to any friendly advice from an enemy. He had decided, so it was going to be so.

"Alright, then. Remember, it's your own choice, and you can go to the bench whenever your pride let you. Has your fever dropped, or is it just your normal attitude that is coming back?" Maxim asked mockingly, annoyed and yet fascinated by this strong boy.

"A little of the first and most of the last." Kai couldn't stop the smile, and it was the first one he had cracked since he came to this black building. Yeah, the Tala he knew was there still, strong body or weak body. Sad that he couldn't talk or anything with the redhead as long as the things was as they were. The moment he spoke to anyone else than Bryan through that hole was the moment he gave in to Boris. "Are we done with our little talk, or should we continue chatting?"

"No, I'm going to the next part. I've used the night to watch your abilities that the cameras recorded, so I now know where the ones that are blading are in skill. I have had some disappointments, but most are better than I thought." The soldier let his eyes run over them all, stopping at some. Bryan was one of them. "The only ones I haven't determined yet are Kai and Tala, to no surprise as Boris took Kai from me already before his first battle was done."

Yeah, just tell them everything, I am soooo happy for letting everyone know that Boris has business with me.

"However, don't slack of because of that. I ask of you to..." The slate stopped listening as Maxim continued, not caring for his words. He looked the others over, and the other blocks appeared as far less military than the C-block. Probably because the C's were closer to learning the weapon Boris claimed to have made for his army. So the C's had to learn how to follow orders. "So, that was all," Kai caught from Maxim. "Go to your post, all of you, and _stay _there today, Bryan, I don't want to hear you going off again. Not even if Tala needs you, he's a strong kid and can take care of himself."

"And yet you call me a kid," Kai heard Tala say, and this time, he was able to fight back the smile. He looked to Brooklyn, still determined to keep their deal, and saw Brooklyn watch him from one of the beystadium. He nodded at the question in the aqua eyes, and soon they stood with the stadium between them and waited, staring each other down. Or, Kai used the death glare the Hiwatari's normally inherited, Brooklyn yawned and looked like he absolutely didn't care. The reason for Kai to take on the challenge was still out of his reach. He might want to see if the white had gotten even stronger with the new blade, maybe it was to prove his strength to himself. The most... He felt like it was the doing of the higher, though it felt stupid. He was no religious person, and higher things meant gods and angels, demons and Satan. And that was absolutely stupid, even stupider than having no reason.

"3! 2! 1! GO!"

The blades swirled around each other, and a moment, it felt like he was flying. Black against black, only the color of the bit showing which blade were which. Neither was bigger or smaller than the others, not in look or the way the fight stood. And Kai was flying high over the ground, feeling the powers of his bit beast roaring to life.

Brooklyn lost ground. Zeus was forced back, like the mouse before the kitten it seemed to be smaller. The citrinite didn't even look, but seemed to concentrate on the ceiling, and suddenly, those damn moths came once again. The apatite-eyed looked down again, having the moths flowing in the air around him, circling him and giving him nobility he did not need. "Zeus." He simply said the name, and then, the blade stood, not bothering with the other black. The euphoria left the slate slowly when Black Dranzer realized it had found a far too strong opponent, and Kai got déjà vu from their last battle. No attacks got through, the prodigy was still a master.

The slate's black blade followed his eyes so smoothly it was creepy, but without words, he commanded it away from the other blade as he tried to come up with a plan. He had to make sure the powers of Black Dranzer didn't take over while he found a way around the defenses of the enemy's black blade. He nearly had lost it just moments ago. He had two enemies, Brooklyn and his own blade, but one of them he was able to control. Only just, but he could. The other... That was where the plan should come to help.

_Boris' office. Boris' desk. The drawer in the middle. Pulling it out. Drawing of the building. Can be used as a map._

Kai blinked as the pictures disappeared again. It was pictures, coming in an order like a comic, but it was set onto his retina and made him unable to see the real world. He shook his head, even though it already had disappeared, still feeling the strange familiarity in the pictures. As if he had seen them before... even though it wasn't his memories. It wasn't his hands, but some pale ones with pure, white sleeves, obviously not some hands that was used to work.

The blades had distance between each other, no one moving as Kai didn't not want to overreact and end up dying again. Then, suddenly, Zeus began to move, running headstrong towards Black Dranzer. In his mind, Kai commanded his blade to defend itself, and the two blades met again, sparks flying off from the metal.

_A forest of deciduous trees. A guard of Boris' standing near. A moment of nothing else than sound and blackness. "We're in France, aren't we?" a pure voice said. A bird coming in between the viewer and the guard as the man turned. A moment of nothing else than sound and blackness. "How did you know?" a rougher voice said._

Zeus was knocked back as Black Dranzer held focus even though Kai was forced not to. He looked towards the enemy blade, commanding his own towards it. This time, Black Dranzer ended up being knocked back. Zeus zigzagged, Black Dranzer did too, and they met, causing shock waves to shake the whole building. Both blades were so strong, but like last time, Kai began to pant while Brooklyn seemed like he might as well be filing his nails.

And yet not. Brooklyn was doing something Kai hadn't seen him do before. He was looking at his blade, concentrated so hard on looking at it that a vein pumped on his forehead. That was not like Brooklyn at all. As if Brooklyn was fighting really hard, even though Kai knew the other hadn't even begun to show his true strength.

_Sitting up in the top of a tree. Looking around. Long away, fields with grass or grapevines. Closer, birds had a nest with chicks. On the same branch as he sat. His pale hand petted the motherbird in the nest. She chirped happily._

Coming back to the present, Kai began to understand. It could be none other than Brooklyn's memories, no-one else was able to touch a wild bird, especially not a protecting mother. And Brooklyn was not a man to work either. His hands was pure and untouched by the blisters a hardworking beyblader had, not even normal work had marked those hands.

Also, the vein on his forehead had disappeared as the pictures were gone, and the blades went on battling like nothing happened. Black against black, creating shock waves and sparks every time they met. Exhaustion was trying to pull Kai down, but he wouldn't go not, especially not when Brooklyn still stood without even breathing a little harder than normal. He put all his powers in to the blade, though he couldn't do it as much as if he had Dranzer. He did not trust his blade.

Brooklyn began to stare his blade down again, his face getting slightly colored as the vein pumped in his forehead again. Kai knew what was happening, and just as Black Dranzer and Zeus met again, pictures began to flow.

_Big, black blocks of granite. A black, castle-like building. In the background, tall mountains were laying. He was on his way in and back to his cell. They all was in this building._

_What are you doing? _Kai didn't know if it came out to the other teen, but he hoped. He refused to speak out loud, so he had to hope for the best. But Brooklyn looked up very sudden. Then, the apatite smiled lazily, looking exactly like Brooklyn always did. It was obvious that the two of them were connected, but the slate did not know what made them come together, nor what made him able to speak _without _actually speaking.

_Information_, Brooklyn answered, the same way as the other. Then, he looked down on the battle, and Kai realized he was being forced back. No way he would! He stared at Dranzer, putting all his power into it. It glowed in its blackness as he remembered it being Black, and he felt himself getting sucked in by the euphoric power the genderless bit beast contained. Zeus was knocked so far back it nearly flew out of the stadium, and Kai continued to struggle to get back the control. Just as he came back to life, just as he got in control of his blade again, he saw Brooklyn stand in _that _way.

"畜生," (Chikushou = damn it!) Kai said. He didn't even realize he said a word, that he broke his personal rule, as he was surrounded by the black sea for the third time in less than two years. One time was more than enough, but for the third time, Brooklyn forced him to get pulled down in that icy pool, to drown in the darkness. This time, there were no team-mates to encourage him to get back up. This time, there wasn't even Dranzer to keep at least one light burning when they came to defeat. He was in the darkness, truly all alone for the first time in his life, drowned in all that it contained. Depression, hurt. Despair. Torment, abandonment, isolation, misery. Suffer. Agony. Distress. So many words for the feelings he felt down in here. None of it his own, but just a window to the mind of the citrinite. He realized that now, it being his third time, but the pain was still unbearable as he dropped down, continued to fall into that dark sea. And the thing that was overall – loneliness. Loneliness so strong, so unbearable and so significant he felt like he was dying. Dying and becoming a monster, who only wished to shatter, show and cause this pain, this loneliness, to every human that lived. It was only like in a dream he heard Brooklyn's voice commanding his bit beast to the kill.

"King of Darkness."

He felt himself fly before he fell. He was out of the darkness again and looked up at the fluorescent lamps as everything went on in slow motion, him not touching the ground as he flew, his back to the floors. He felt himself clash and crash into another person, tackling whoever it was so he ended up over him. He slided down the stadium his victim had been fighting in, feeling his arms and legs force the blades to stop.

"Kai?" He knew that voice and looked to the side, looking into the face of Mystel staring at him with surprise. "You look different without the face paint." Technically, he still had some smudged remains of the blue paint. It was a lot like the blond pointing it out as they laid there, their bodies tangled into each other. Mystel was the one he had brought down with him, and they watched each other for some time, Kai's body aching too much for him to try to get them tangled out, Mystel simply lying with no chance of getting up. "What happened?" Kai got up, not letting his body decide over him. He watched Brooklyn, who was still standing by their stadium with a faint, lazy smile. A lot of people had stopped their matches even before he ended up flying, as Kai-Brooklyn always had been interesting to watch.

"Wanna play again tomorrow?" Brooklyn asked, causing Kai to glare at him with obvious anger. Hell yeah a match tomorrow. Both for information and revenge. If he just had had Dranzer...

* * *

It was disappointing. In the other end, it had been silent all day. He had thought the other one would be there, but his 'friend' hadn't said a word since Bryan had come. He sat on the bed, listening to the others conversation, hoping to hear the other one as soon as he came back. But he still couldn't trust the other one to be good before he got proof, and as long as Boris hadn't been there, he had no proof. If someone came and claimed that one of the others had deceived them, he was able and ready to tell them otherwise. He had made sure to watch everyone of these people, and none had talked to the guards more than necessary. If Boris came and claimed someone had turned their back to them, he had proof no-one did so. And then, his 'friend' had told him something very important.

"We have to get out now," he heard someone say. It was pure coincidence that he heard, and he knew that he had to leave his watch to get that idea out of whoever's head. He rose from the bed and began to walk, hoping his friend wouldn't come while he was away. Might be the only way to get information for them, so it would be bad if the person thought he ignored him if the unknown ended up being trustworthy.

"Who said that?" Bryan asked, sitting by the bars and looked them all over. He seemed absolutely not caring, but that didn't matter to the rest anymore. Julia answered as the one, and he looked her over, mimicking Tala's cold angry-leader-glare. "If we end up getting out in an environment where we can't survive, what would you do then? If we do get out of this building without a map, which is highly unlikely as it is a big building with high security, and we end up in a dry desert, a cold plain of tundra or a mountain of pure rocks and cliffs, do you think we'll survive? Then, we'll be better off in here. And though I know Tala wouldn't come back here if that was the case, most of you would think it would be better to be in this building. But if we have gotten out, and the only way to survive is to go back here, do you think they let you in? Boris is only looking for a reason to kill of the ones that irritates him with their determination, and that is the ones that will get out if they want. If you even get out of here, and it appears to be a impossible place, you all get killed by either the surroundings or Boris when you try to get back. Then we should rather stay here until we have the information we need, then find a way to prepare for whatever is outside."

"And what makes you so fit to tell us this? You, of all, should seem less trustworthy on the plans. We can't know how highly you value lives." As always, it was Enrique pulling him down. But Bryan just shrugged, knowing Tala was dying to yell the Italian in his face but was too sick to actually do it.

"If you want a reason to believe in me not letting you die because of my lack of feelings, I can only tell you that you have to trust Boris having done a good job with me," Bryan said, trying to find a way to get the Italian off his back so well that Tala wouldn't feel the need to smack the blond in the face at his next chance. "When I was in the abbey, I learned dead team-mates was a bad thing, which mean I will do whatever I have in power to keep you all alive." The blond didn't seem convinced, and him having 'learned' such a thing was also kind of creepy. Bryan calculated further in his head, then he sighed when he found the reason for the blond to be after him all the time.

"I'm not stupid. The fact that I have some 'flaws' doesn't make me stupid, neither does it that those flaws makes me not care about my pride or appearance. Just because you have judged me so doesn't make it true. Pride and appearance is only a luxury for you and your people, so that some other people do not care about it makes them stupid? I'm not stupid. I'm a genius."

The Italian snorted. As did many others that did not believe this, though they tried to hide it. He had about the opposite look of the normal genius-image.

"Before I met Boris, when I was four years old, I could do math in my head that people at the university was having trouble with, I had great knowledge in biology and physics and read the brick-books they use in high schools and university, and forced my bloodfearing mama to watch bloody war and scary historical movies to show her the wonders of history. That was why Boris choose to target me, along with some other things, my abilities fit with his thoughts of a loyal and absolutely emotionless machine, taking his words out of his mouth. My mind works like a computer, other words taken out of his mind, and this problem, us being trapped inside this building... It's an equation. Right now, I have too many unknowns to solve it, but as soon as x, y, z, n, m, o and p is replenished with numbers, which means knowledge, I only need a moment before α will be found, and we all get out alive. Or you can see it as a game of chess, as I managed to kill of the enemy king without losing even the smallest pawn when I was four, as a task for me to get the exciting again. I am the most capable of us to find a plan, despite whatever you think of me. But I need time, as fact is that if one of the unknowns, especially x, y and z, 'location', 'weapons' and 'nutrition', is not solved, the chance of some or all of us dying are high." Making sure the job was done, Bryan looked over at Tala. The devilish smile on the redheads still-sick face showed that the wolf was not going to bite the head off the mighty dragon.

With an annoying, plain face, Bryan turned and watched the Italian until the blond sighed and bowed his head. Then the emerald turned and sat on the bed again, thinking. "How is he going to get any information at all?" he heard Falak whisper to the others, and Julia and Enrique gave the blond female right.

"I think that is what he is working on right now. The first few days, he was always out to make sure Tala was okay, both before and after he got sick. Now when his captain, his important person, is alright, he will concentrate on getting us all out of the situation. That's why he simply sit there and doesn't talk." Hillary was protecting him. That was out of his calculation of her, as she seemed only to have a slight interest in him.

"And you're sure of that?" Enrique asked, obviously not believing her.

"Yeah, or... at least, I think I begin to understand how his mind works," Hillary said.

"You are," Tala interrupted. "Though I only have one thing to correct you on. I'm a superior to him, not an important person." The difference was clear, as you needed feeling to have an 'important person', while your superior just was someone who gave you orders and decided over you.

_"__Bryan, are you there?" _Again, it was so soft the emerald was unable to decide if he knew the person. _"I didn't know that you had such a mind," _the other continued when Bryan mmh'ed.

"That's not what we are supposed to talk about." The emerald-eyed let his head lean back against the wall and closed his eyes. "Boris hasn't come yet. Until he have, until I have made the decision, I cannot trust you. But what were you doing, since you didn't answer? Thought you were bound to your place."

_"__He's on his way right now. I was in his office, so I couldn't be here." _If he hadn't said it and Bryan somehow found out the other one had so close connection to that man, he would lose Bryan's trust. Both of them knew that, so Bryan didn't take it in his consideration of whether or not to let this unknown in to their plans. _"Anyway, I know where there is a map, or a map-like thing. It's going to be a lot of trouble getting it, but I will make sure it will happen. So you can cross that one from your list of unknowns you need to solve to get your group out of this place."_

"Thank you," Bryan said, even though he didn't feel any gratitude. If he did, then he would be happy, but that was just another factor that showed why it was impossible. "Fill me in on... No, wait," he whispered, getting up. He heard footsteps, and it was footsteps that only could belong to one man. "Boris is on his way. Might just be that you are trustworthy, but I have to get my punishment. I'll come back in less than an hour, probably." He rose from the bed and turned so the camera actually could see his face now. Just then, Boris showed himself.

"I have heard that you have some bad plans of getting out of here," Boris said, meeting a stoneface and a lot of angry glares from his prisoners... and of course also Brooklyn's lazy greeting smile. It didn't seem to bother him, but why should it? He was the one who had power, power over even the strongest and weakest of these. And as he was a man for power, the purple haired loved it to the bottom of his creepy heart. "The leader has been chosen as Tala, accompanied by Bryan as the mind. And two other figures is Julia and Enrique. You will get your punishment now, starting with Tal-"

"Boris, I'll offer you myself instead of his punishment."

"That's not how we play, Bryan."

"That's how I'll make us play. I do not care about you, but you keep away from Tala and the others."

"The others are this group, hn? You seem to have gotten better at teamwork. Then, may I ask which they-?"

"Tala is a superior, the others inferiors until they have proven abilities to something different." Boris smiled as Bryan showed he was still capable of reading and understanding his long lost leader. That kid hadn't changed, even if he was older. "And I take their punishment too, Boris."

The purple haired seemed to think a moment, not knowing if he should approve. Then, a very evil smile crossed his face. "You realize you take the punishment of four people?" Bryan nodded with his statue-like face. "You realize it is going to be bad?" Another nod. "_Very _bad?" He didn't have to ask. Since he had that mind, the gray haired already had thought it through. Boris could do whatever he wanted to him, but as he did not feel, he wouldn't break, already have been broken by this person. Many of these people's backs hadn't ever felt a whip, and the pain from a whip could drive people to insanity if the user of the whip 'did it right'. That meant the blond and the female had to be protected as his a part of the team. Tala was still not healthy and strong again, the fever was still in his body, so he had to be protected to be kept alive. Bryan was unable to become insane or touched in other ways as he did not feel. He was fit to take whatever that man threw at him. "Alright, then. You will get your way, Bryan. I didn't know you could be so persistent."

They opened the door to his cell, and as they began to walk, Boris having a hand tight around Bryans neck, the emerald-eyed heard his captain mumble to the others. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?" The emerald just wanted the redhead to take care of himself and stop worrying about others, so that he could get back on the horse again. But the others in the group, even Brooklyn, approved. Something was giving them a very bad feeling. Maybe Boris' smile as he gave in to the emotionless?

Boris pushed Bryan into the office with such force that the teen flew forward and right into the desk with his head first. Ending on the floor, the emerald shook his head to clear his vision again and rubbed his sore forehead to make that pleasure he had once yearned so much for that he had pushed nails and knives into his skin to cause it. "Go out of the room. Check you gear, get lunch, train your abilities with the whip, I don't care what you do, but go away."

"I thought he was getting his punishment," the guard said, letting a hand caress his beloved whip as if he had gotten offended by Boris giving him the chance to get better. That man was not as good as Tala was, there was no doubt, so he should just go into the training room and practice. He held it wrongly, that was how Bryan knew his lesser abilities, but he didn't say anything.

"He will get punished, but not by a whip. Whips don't have any effect on this, you see. You can't harm him, so you can't punish him." It could surprise no-one that it was the guard who gave in. Both because he had nothing to gain by continuing to argue with the man, and because Boris was his boss. He left, and Boris turned to Bryan as he locked the door. "So, then it's just you and me. And I know you still are... too influenced by my teachings to fight back, no matter what I do with you." He slowly walked over to Bryan and picked him up from the floor, and Bryan had a dumb alarm clock inside himself, warning him that the older man was too close. "If you wonder, I promise you that I'll only do this and only ever have done this to you. I'm no pedophile, so I have never touched any of the kids in the abbey." Letting a hand slip down under the teen's shirt, the purple haired sought the muscular body over before pulling the shirt off. "Normally, I prefer women, but I have had a man sometimes. But never one so young... Your body tempt me." The man's touch were demanding, silently ordering Bryan to stay still. Shivers grew all over the teen's body, but he was unable to connect the reactions of both his body and his mind and make it come together to make the obvious decision. Fight back. "Even though I hate your mind, even though your weakness that you have in that genius brain of yours makes me despise you and want to hurt you, I can't help it. I despise you, I want to keep away from you. Reject you." He breathed deeply and passionately, but did not kiss or do anything that might bring comfort. "But... your body attracts me and begs me to touch it." Bryan did not remember doing that, he hadn't begged for anything. The teen could feel his body react to the touch, even though he didn't feel any pleasure in it. He was getting hard. A groping hand got up to his face, but Bryan neither flinched nor moved.

The hand forced his head to the side, and a moment after, Bryan felt himself flying from the desk towards the metalboard. He landed on the ground, but just as he nearly got up again, he felt Boris drag him over to the board, and a moment after, one of his hands were chained. He felt the other creeping hand caress the web of white, straight scars that Tala had left as a memory of their first meeting forever. His mind and body was still unable to connect, and though he was aware of what Boris was about to do with him, having been on pubs and discos with Spencer and 'Tala the Devil', he couldn't figure out what reaction he was supposed to make. "Stop staring at me with that straight face," Boris growled and slapped him, taking Bryan's other hand and chaining it too. "Oh, and it's just a precaution. Some people react pretty hard their first time. I do not believe you might begin to fight back, but it's just to make sure." Following the groping hands' silent commands, Bryan got the rest of the way up on the board, and soon, his legs were chained too. "You don't have to be afraid someone comes in. The door is locked."

"I know that," the emerald-eyed answered, which made Boris smile. He really hadn't changed, had he?

"Good. And the sound doesn't go out of this room, so you can scream if you want. Remember, this is your punishment, not pleasure." Bryan was still watching the man as his pant got pulled down. Boris watched his manhood for a moment, which actually was able to make Bryan uncomfortable. Maybe because of Boris' normal treatment of that part of him, or maybe he really was beginning to feel the danger in his situation. But... It was probably the first. Boris looked the younger body over, it being forced to stretch out, tempting him. He got a grip on the teen's hips and forced Bryan to looked forward instead of at him.

Slowly, something slipped up into Bryan. The emotionless eyes managed to stay emotionless as they widened, and he tried to turn to look what Boris was doing. It... He didn't know what it did, if it hurt or it gave him pleasure. No matter what, it was wrong. Should he flee? Should he fight back? The uncomfortability of his body asked him to do so. But his mind said he had to follow the silent orders of those hand. The body and mind did still not follow each other, and before he could decide to follow the right one, Boris began to move. At first, it surely was pleasure as the thing inside him slowly took itself back out.

Then he thrusted, and he did it hard. Bryan arched his head and back backwards and tried to pull himself away with his hands, but both chains and Boris made him unable to do that. He whimpered in pain, for the first time since he was four, the pain was his enemy. Not even when Boris did his normal punishment, the pain was truly uncomfortable. But this...

As the next movement was made, the teen tried to throw himself forward. Then, he heard the voice. "Lay still," Boris demanded, and Bryan followed order. His mind locked of the bodies demand, and as Bryan just laid with his head on the black metal and whimpered in an attempt not to scream and show that weakness, Boris made sure to make his own pleasure painful and long for the younger one, knowing how to move and how not to. His breathing was steady and his body turning hot. He had a toy, but he was only going to use that toy this once.

For Bryan, it was no pleasure. He had been a virgin until this time, not finding interest in, or be able to understand, the physical relationship human to human. He had seen Spencer and Tala walk off with females at bars and in discos, even the fourteen-year-old had experience with the ladies. But for those three, it was more patches for their wounds. But Bryan did not bleed, for he was broken, and the broken can only be unbroken if they got straightened out and healed.

In the beginning, Boris moved slowly to make sure he made his point. But when he began to heat up and get even more excited, he moved faster and even harder. Bryan was crying, he was actually crying, even if it was only tears that smeared down his cheeks. Inside, he was even colder right now than the normal darkness.

Boris continued to move, thrusting as hard and fast as he could. Then, he came, and he was the only one to do so. As he pulled out of Bryan, who had just begun to feel a slight pleasure, he left the teen tapped for energy on the board, unsatisfied and hurt worse than ever before.

"Are we done?" the teen whispered silently, nearly begging, as he watched the man through teary eyes. His first tears for many years. But he didn't even consider the possibility of fighting back.

Boris just smiled as he watched the naked teen from his office chair. "Of course not. You are taking punishment for four, remember? It was our deal." The purple haired pulled out the lowest drawer of his desk, one that was normally locked. The things inside it, Bryan got to know soon after.

* * *

_"__I trust you." _

The words came out of nowhere. It had been a very long time since the slate last had heard the emerald-eyed, it felt like many hours, and at that time, he had protected his group in a way the slate had never imagined the other would do. When Kai had run off from the abbey as a seven-year-old, the eight-year-old Bryan had been a silent... monster-kind-of-thing. He hadn't had any friends, nor had he anything to fight for, and yet, Bryan had fought to kill his opponents instead of not losing like all the other had. Kai couldn't imagine that kid protect anyone, especially not since he was seventeen and _still_ hadn't healed his wounds. But that the older had already decided to trust him was surprising, even if Boris had come to punish them for their talk, claiming one of them to be a traitor.

"What made you come to that decision?" he asked, ready not to get an answer. It could be that the older teen had come to the decision on instincts, or that he simply liked to keep his privacy. If it was the first, which it probably was, he would have made the decision with no reason, and that normally wasn't something you were ready to admit. The second, on the other hand, was totally understandable.

_"__Cause you were right about Boris and gave me information that is going to course him trouble, since I'm not going to consult with the others now that I know there is cameras. You are close or have been close to Boris, as you have knowledge in his ways of thinking and knew he was trying to split us up by claiming a traitor to be here without telling a name. Being close to him, you have a big chance of hating him, as most of his guards are angry or afraid of him. And then, there is the fact that I have to trust you, since I have no other chance of getting information. If I turn you down and you actually are trustworthy, I have made the biggest mistake of my life. Though I am going to check up on most of the thing you have said before I risk the life of the others."_

Yeah, he really had that mind. Kai let himself smile, still turning in a way that made the camera unable to see him talk. "You don't let anything slip, do you?" the slate said, his voice not showing his amusement. Bryan seemed to be the absolute best man he could have had a chance to give information. With him making the plan, it seemed it wouldn't go wrong. "I have solved the map, or I am going to at first chance. We are in France, so you can take location off your list. The southern part, I believe, but that I'm not sure of. We are a little up a mountain, but can come down easily, so there is no risk of needing to survive a winter in the mountains." Not that it would be a problem for the Russians, them being used to colder things in a bigger part of the year. "I have nothing on food, as I don't know where there is a kitchen or anything like it. I might not be able to help you, but since weapons is solved too, what is n, m, o and p?"

_"__Guards, maps for both the building and the country, something that can help us against that sound they used to capture us and, the least important, a helper that might have some knowledge. Even with a map, mistakes can be made and corner can be turned. But that is not important, as we can't be sure if anyone is trustworthy and the risk of them being a traitor is high. I would never had contacted you if I had found us able to communicate first, but you showed helpfulness from the beginning. It is my only way to find these things out."_

"In guards, what do you mean?" the slate asked, as he was quite sure he was able to help at that point. He could follow the view the emerald had on 'the helper'. He had two persons in mind, but neither of those seemed eager to help, even if they seemed to hate Boris or Boris' principles.

_"__The number of guards he has, when they shift, all of those. Especially when the guards in the camera-rooms shift would be helpful, but that we can live without. But numbers and shifts are needed."_

"You are pretty demanding," Kai sighed, thinking about his normal easy access to Boris' office, "but I will do what I can. Though I know nothing for protection from the sound, and I don't think I'll be able to help you with that." But it wasn't so important, as...

_"__We are going to survive without it for a time. Or, at least, they will be unable to find us, as we aren't in cities or other towns or addresses. As long as we don't end up dying, which is going to happen in time if I have understood that weapon right..." _That teenager really was sharp. The slate had to be impressed by that.

"I don't know what causes it, but if you get over the age of 19, you will die. But you might die before that. In time, yes, all will die if they turn it on, but it's... Well, for an example, Kenny from the Bladebreakers died while the rest survived." He was quite sure Bryan had already realized this, even the fact that Kenny had died.

_"__If we die, it would just be relief of the pain this 'new world' causes," _the other one answered, not surprising. Kai couldn't agree more. _"But as long as we tried to resist Boris, we at least have a reason to die. So dying while we try to get out or because we cause him trouble on the outside aren't bad, at least that is my calculation. It might be wrong... But at least, we should try to get information about that, both of us, since both Boris and most of the guards are older than 19."_

Kai nodded, but said nothing for a while. That was the same for the other side. "Was that all for today, then?"

_"__I guess so. Tell me as soon as you've come closer to one of them, or have done it. Just take your time. We are too close to the winter to go out now, so our first attempt to escape will be at least four months from now." _Perfectly understandable. Winter was a hard time to survive with nothing left at all.

"I will," he said, though he wasn't going to promise anything. He might find a way to take advantage of the situation, so he could help her out of Boris' hands...

Kai sat up and got over to the bars, where Max and Tyson sat silent and waited. For food, probably. They had nothing to talk about, so they didn't talk at the moment. The slate didn't mind it, since he couldn't say anything. The difference of him talking to Bryan and him talking was that talking so Boris could hear it was giving in. Bryan was opposing Boris, and Kai would help him with that, no matter the cause. Except if it got her life in danger.

She was not going to die for the others to live.

* * *

I DID IT!!!! I MADE A CHAPTER ON 9 PAGES!!!! YAY!!!! Be proud of me!!! And I just remembered I'm still one pairing short if someone have a wish ^^ Don't mind YAOI or straight pairings, even though the pairing I already have is straight.

And I hope you didn't enjoy the scene with Bryan and Boris, cause I'm going to kick that creeps ass for it!! Later... ^^ Hope I showed you the confusion in Bryans mind, but as I think I have said already, it was made for a reason!!! It is a part of... something I won't tell you about right now!!!

Kai's last scene is short, but done, and that's that! And... God, I actually feel bad for Bryan even more right now... I haven't even showed you it all... Man, when did my evil mind get so sad about doing evil thing to my thingies? (Since always, that why you do it, you retard, you love that freaking, heartbreaking sadness of hurting the characters you love, stop acting like you didn't realize!!!)

Anyway, hope you liked it, I have gotten back to listening to Lordi and I'm dead tired ^^

Enjoy in joy and all that!!!


	7. Time that passes Slowly

So, kinda, I'm tired ^^ And very tired, that is. I don't know why... But anyway, I wanted to get on, so on I'm going... Still feeling very sad for Bryan, but it feels good to feel sad if you know what I feel- ...eh, mean? Don't expect any more of those scenes where you see it 'all the way through', as I am most likely only another one or only one more. Though I don't have anyone to put Kai together with, if anyone have a genius idea and I actually can fit it into the story.

Or, well, actually, I'm not only tired. I'm sick too, and to prove to you how bad it is, I'll just say I have had two-three whole days, exactly, two-three _whole days_ where I was unable to sit by the computer. I can ALWAYS sit by a computer, and I forced myself to do so, but my activity-level was... poor. This story was first really written this Thursday. (The first ten lines of the story was written Sunday, then, I got stuck to my bed and first really woke up after my last written exam Wednesday. But this Wednesday, it was an internet test, and I got my grade at the second I was done! A+! yay! (And I was still sick when I made it, so I really couldn't understand I was so good o.O))

Oh, and see! I'm a genius! - Or at least not as bad with the machinery as I know I am (nope, I can't make sense of it either). But! The chapters have the same title as their name! I'm happy! ^^

Disclaimer: I don't own anything ^^ Want to, do not, why I want to, because I'm pissed off by the fact that all Tysons battles are far too predictable (both that he always wins and his strategy, but that is why I love G-rev, cause he is actually able to lose ^^ (No, not the biiig battles, of course not, even if I wanted him to, no, no care at all, Kai shouldn't have been the champ, of course he shouldn't, no))

Warning: I'm killing and being rough on characters, don't like, don't read nor watch (can you do one thing without the other? o.O) Anyway, I enjoy doing this because I'm a spawn of Satan (or Satan himself), but I'm actually quite angelic some times too ^^

Reviews:

GatewaysDiary: Yeah, I love to write xD Also, my first review ever was about one and a half page. I can't stop when I begin, I just go on and on writing xD I can't just stop writing when more is still pouring out and trying to break through, ya know! I'm better at stopping now, but... I kinda slipped in my last chapter when I began to reply you. Didn't know if I should chop it into pieces, but I decided you deserved it ^.^ And will try to work on the transitions. Promise, though I might not be able to change it. I'll make sure to try and remember to try ^.^

And then we're off! (And Lightning McQueen has a good start, he's driving down the corner, he takes the lead...!)

* * *

Time that passes... Slowly

* * *

With a guard by his side, the gray haired teen stumbled back to his cell. Trying hard to look normal as he walked, he pulled himself up and straightened his back, but one thing he wasn't able to was hiding the red marks of tears that had painted his eyes and cheeks. To walk normally hurt him, and he was tripping a lot because of his exhaustion, but it would hurt the others to realize what prize he had paid for them not to get hurt.

Though he needed a toothbrush. He very badly needed a toothbrush, still able to taste Boris'... - In short, he needed a toothbrush. And there was none in the cell, he already knew.

He noted Brooklyn wasn't in his cell and thought it probably just was him getting a nature-experience with the guards. Without looking at the others and unable to hide the marks of tears because of his short military haircut, Bryan made it to his cell.

"Bryan, are you alright?" Tala yelled behind him, but the emerald didn't react, trapped in nausea and pain. The others reacted too, of course, they began to feel like a real team. Enrique and Falak was the only ones able to watch him, but he had their back to them.

He looked the black cell over, feeling his nausea grow even worse, and then stumbled towards the toilet. "Can you see what he is doing?" the anxious wolf asked, his voice the really clear for the first time since he had gotten sick. The other two nodded as Bryan reached the toilet. Now, he needed a toothbrush for two reasons...

"He puked." It was obvious the rich youngster didn't like that, but at least, he tried to hide his disgust. Might be the reason why Tala didn't get angry at him. It was an honest try not to show any bad feelings towards the gray haired and the first try ever. All the while, Bryan threw himself on the bed, making sure to lay on his side instead of his back. He still couldn't transform that pain into pleasure, so he was not going to invite the pain to come.

"I trust you." It was merely a whisper, but a whisper was all he and the other one was allowed to. He didn't know why he did, to be honest. But something in Boris' office had made him realize that. There was a lot of reasons not to trust this unknown person... Something in him told him that the one was trustworthy, and the scientist had told him to trust his instincts, unless they were about killing or harming his superior.

_"What made you come to that decision?"_ It wasn't surprising that the other one had to ask, and Bryan answered without having to thing to long. It was a mix of truth and lie, but that was alright. This person wasn't a known one, so he didn't have to tell everything as long as it didn't have anything to do with the plans. _"You don't let anything slip, do you?"_ He sensed the amusement, but he didn't care. Amusement was one of the feelings he didn't remember at all anymore, but knew the effects it let on the outside of the body in voice, smile and laughter. _"I have solved the map, or I am going to at first chance. We are in France..." _The conversation went on while Bryan acted like he was asleep – which he nearly also was. But though his body was exhausted and it hurt all the way up in his stomach, his mind was sharp and awake. That was also the reason he discovered the woman behind him, and he turned to look at her.

_"Was that all for today, then?"_

Bryan didn't react at first, but then turned fast and acted as if he was pushing himself off the bed. "I guess so. Tell me as soon as you've come closer to one of them, or have done it. Just take your time. We are too close to the winter to go out now, so our first attempt to escape will be at least four months from now." He made the movements slow. Mostly because he wanted to say it all without the camera noticing, but also the pain forced him to take it easy. He stood and only barely caught the other's promise before he turned again and walked closer. The woman had long, shiny, raven hair, and her facial features was Asian. They watched each other for some time, while she just looked at him with a hateful glare.

"Did you enjoy it?" she then sneered. Immediately, Bryan knew who she was. A lover of Boris', even if it seemed impossible. "Did you like what he did to you?" She slowly sat down squatting, her black eyes not leaving him for a second, and Bryan realized she was the first 'guard' he had met that weren't Russian. At least of the females. She really was special in this place. "You make sure to keep away from him, understood?"

He took her for half Thai, half some western country. She had the same clothes as everyone else... Though the cloth around her arm was different... The armband Maxim had, had the image of a beyblade on it. Or Boris' new weapon. Whatever it had been. All the guards in the trainingroom had that, except for the 'higher-ups', like Katyenka. Her armband had the image of a gun. Meaning she was in the military-guarding-part instead of just training? And then had gotten the order to coordinate the training? Might be... But this woman had the image of a knife on the armband.

"I said understood?" she sneered, not yelling, just glaring him down. Yeah, she hated him a lot. "Stay away from him. He isn't even interested in you!" As if it was him who had been interested. He just watched her. Still, she was sneering, not yelling, like a cat. "I'll make your life here a hell if you go near him again." That could end up being harder than she thought. He didn't feel, so how should he hate the way he lived or where he lived? Hopefully, she was not going to say anything that would make the others realize what he had been through. "I just wanted you to realize it, okay? If you ever do anything, and I mean anything, I will... I will chop you into pieces!" He nodded silently, and she breathed in deep. "Sorry I came here," she then said and strode of, as if nothing had happened.

"Who was she?" the Italian asked, but Bryan simply shrugged, hoping they wouldn't understand what her words actually meant. He would keep Boris' deeds to himself, so that they wouldn't end up hurting because of him... He had to keep silent. And... there was something else... something he didn't understand... it hurt. His stomach hurt badly, but he couldn't decide whether or not it was physical pain or... something else.

The emerald turned around and laid on the bed again, breathing slowly so he could sleep faster. When Brooklyn came back, they had to talk... if they could find a way to talk secretly... And yet, he needed a plan before he could instruct Brooklyn to do anything, and that plan he wasn't sure of. It was all about the armbands, but he had to be sure of it before... and maybe he could put other aspects into it, instead of sacrificing himself for one single thing... that meant the one behind the hole had to move first... But then again, he had to find out if what he thought about the armbands were true first...

The stream of thoughts ended by him cutting it of. He had to sleep, his body was exhausted, so he had to turn off his still-awake mind. It was hard, but if he would sleep, he had to stop thinking...

Just when he dozed off, Brooklyn came back from his nature-trip, and from the coolness the others showed him, he was their suspect in who had turned them down and told Boris. It was mostly the guard that was noisy, but still, Brooklyn was the one who shut the door so hard... Actually, he should make sure the others didn't split up the group, since he was the only one who knew the truth...

He rolled out of the bed, deciding he couldn't let them destroy what little feeling of unity they'd gotten. Rising, he walked over to the bars, still not showing his pain and sat down on the floor. "I trust Brooklyn as much as the rest of you," he announced. "He wasn't the one who leaked out the information. First reason is that he wasn't himself when we was talking about it, remember? Second reason is... Not necessary to tell you." If he told them he was watching them, then they would just stop trusting him, thinking that he wasn't trusting them. They had to trust him, or else he risked them opposing him when he was fulfilling his plan.

"But you are certain of it?" Tala asked, and when the emerald nodded, the redhead decided to trust him. "Alright. Please go back to sleep now." Well, the emerald technically hadn't been able to sleep up until now, but that didn't matter. He was going to anyway, as soon as he knew the redhead would do the same. He didn't want to look for a new superior, especially because none near him came to his mind in that matter. For some reason, even his oldest superior, Boris, was beginning to falter.

"Stop worrying about me and worry about your own health. I'm not in mortal danger, just exhausted." The fever still pained the slender body, but no-one could decide if it had gotten better or worse, as the redhead would lie without a doubt. "I beg of you not to die, Tala. Take care of yourself instead of me. My life has no value."

The redhead clenched his teeth, but something stopped him from arguing. "To claim you are without any importance is going too far, Bry," he said, nothing opposing in his tired voice. "But from your perspective, I cannot argue. Just promise me to eat when the food is brought, and I promise to do the same. Спи спокойно, мой друг ." (Sleep well, my friend) Bryan just nodded as he withdraw from the bars, and after a while, Tala followed his example. Once again, Bryan was trapped in the hell of his own thoughts, being unable to shut them out and get some actual sleep. If he didn't sleep, his body would begin to weaken, and that was the last thing he needed. Especially if his plan ended up as he was thinking it should.

Then, he just needed the other one to move before he did. And there was one unknown he couldn't move about, that he had to eliminate before he chose to act. How it was going to happen, he didn't have a plan for, no matter how he tried to plan it, there was nothing... Though his thoughts were far more useful and collected, he still cut himself off, trying to sleep instead. There were time for planning, and that wasn't when he should sleep.

Once again, just as he was close to sleep and was drifting into the black unconsciousness, a guard came. He was noisy, so Bryan turned to watch him. He had an armband too, also one of the knives. It was like a kitchenknife. He was giving out food, so Bryan chose to move, even if it hurt him. As he continued to stare at the armband, he got filled with mental pleasure. It was a lot like a feeling, and yet emotionless and indescribable. He took he food when the guard disappeared and sat by he bed, making sure to have all his weight on the left buttock and leaned toward the airhole. "I ask of you to move as quickly as you can. Tell me as soon as you have everything in place."

The unknown in his plan was gone.

* * *

It had been three months since they had come. If he was able to count the days right, which he doubted really hard. Boris had made it so that the girls and the boys had a separated bath every tenth day, five days between each bath. Training, eating, sleeping... It became a routine, an easy routine of hard work. Kai kept an eye on his friend, and couldn't help getting a little relieved when Tala got healthy again. While that, Bryan and Brooklyn seemed to get closer. At least, Bryan talked a lot with the citrinite even though they wasn't having anything alike.

But the slate was still stubborn towards Boris, and didn't talk. He knew it was driving Boris crazy, but also that the purple haired was afraid of punishing him because of his grandfather. But he was uncertain whether he should move. He knew that he was stalling Bryan's plans, but he couldn't leave her behind. It was a bad dilemma, the safety of his frie... the others or that he left with her, forcing the rest to stay. He had seen many chances of taking the map from Boris' desk, but he had hesitated to take action. Nothing new had he found on her... And if he left her here... If he took off by himself... She would certainly die.

The trainingroom got filled up, and it didn't even take ten minutes before the guards separated them into their groups. After that, it only took seconds before they were divided, where Julia, Max and some other of the fitness-guys was let to blade instead. Tala was still not allowed blading, as his body nearly didn't respond positively on the training.

The slate thought Brooklyn would come over to him, as the citrinite had done the last many times, but the orange haired stayed with the emerald. He could see the two talk as they made themselves ready by one of the stadiums, and the slate sighed when he realized he was forced to find a new partner. He turned just as Boris came through one of the entries.

"Time for another lecture, Kai."

The man had stopped waiting for the slate to answer him, and instead, he just dragged of with the silent teen. They ended in his office, with the metalboard in the corner, the screens on the wall and that desk where he had a map right there too.

"So, today I've been asked to teach you about the mind's way of functioning. It has to do with a lot of the things we have already..." Someone knocked on the door. Boris lifted his head and snorted like an angry bull. "Get in here," he snapped, and a guard stood in the door. He looked very nervous as he entered, but it only seemed to make Boris angrier. "What is it?"

"We, eeeh... We have a problem at the kitchen," the guard said, and Boris tilted his head with acid eyes. He didn't seem to think good of the explanation. "Eh... We need you, sir." With a sigh the purple haired rose from his chair. He sent Kai a glare.

"Stay here and don't do anything stupid."

Yeah, like I should feel any need for stupid things. He watched as Boris walked out of the door. Then, the violets turned to the desk. This was his best chance until now... It might even be that he wouldn't find a better chance again. He just had to begin to move in order to save her, and it might be that there were more things in there than just a map. It couldn't be her that was down there, of course, that would be ridiculous. But maybe things that could lead him to her. Then he would both help Bryan and get closer to her. He had moved far to little for what he claimed to worry for her.

First, he looked up for any security-cameras. He couldn't know if Boris actually would sacrifice himself enough to get less privacy in order to keep safe himself. Luckily, the purple haired didn't, and Kai sat down by the desk and opened the middle drawer.

The drawing of the building was the first thing he saw, and he looked it over closely before taking it under his shirt. It was better than he remembered in Brooklyn's memory, in more detail and showed all different layers of the building and every cell. The rooms that weren't cells were far bigger than the cells, but there was nothing that told what the rooms were used for. But he had found what he thought was Boris' office and memorized the nearest way to an exit, and the same with his cell. A precaution that made him able to flee whenever he liked. And he liked to when he found her.

Under the map, a long list of names were written in Russian letters, two columns. Even names that weren't Russian had been 'translated'. That much he was able to see. But even if he could speak Russian and he was a half, he had never learned to write it, so the amount of letters he remembered and understood was minimal. He looked the names over again and again, until he found something familiar. Катыенка. It was in the second group, but he didn't understand what the group was made of. But he could read Katyenka.

He looked down to the next title. Тренеры. He cracked his mind to understand and smiled. 'Coaches'. And down by the M's were Макси́м. He looked up at the title over Katyenka's name and took it letter by letter. Гвардия. 'Guards'. That explained why the list was so long. It most be all the people they had in this room. Maxim was a trainer, Katyenka a guard.

He looked up at the top title. Командиры. After a very long time, that too made sense. Even if it took a long time. 'Commanders', and at the top of that list was Boris' name written. Bryan would be happy to get this, Kai decided, but still hesitated. But if he didn't take it, and Bryan found out the list of guards had been the same place as the map, then the slate would stop being trustworthy.

Under the list, a lot of paper was. I looked like letters, and he took them up. Communication between Boris and Voltaire, in Russian. Oh, how annoying. He tried to read what they said, but it was impossible when he hadn't anymore than a few letters in his memory. Kai was able to read his own name a bunch of times, and Ian's name once or twice. He was able to understand some of the words, too, but without being able to get any meaning out of it. Bryan might be interested in this too. It had information on one of his teammates. And if they got out together, he would be able to make one of the Russians translate, so he could find out what the hell Voltaire actually wanted with him.

The last thing in the drawer was another drawing. It took him a long time to realize what it might be. It looked like a fusion with a satellite and a drill. The writing was in Russian, and the exact size was impossible to see on the drawing. Whatever it was, it didn't seem important, so the slate went up to the top drawer after taking the list and the letters under his shirt where the map was.

In the top, there only was some ear pad-looking things made of some kind of heavy metal. The slate discovered a button placed under the board of the desk beside the drawer, and he could help wonder what nasty things it might end up causing. Cause it most be nasty. He decided to go on with the work. Mostly because he couldn't find out what it was without pushing it, and if he pushed, Boris would probably find out what he was doing. That wasn't a good thing for anyone else than the creep.

He closed the top drawer again and got down to the lowest one. It was locked. How could he leave the rest so open and the lock the lowest? The lock was easy to open, if he just had something to pick it with. He looked his pockets through, but found nothing. On the desk was only paper and pens, things Kai doubted was used to anything else than writing letters to his grandfather. But nothing of those were able to pick anything up. Danm...

He sat down again and broke one of the pens, so he at least could try to use its insides to open the lock. As he tried to work it, the small tubes and metal rods bent and curled. He was just about to get so annoyed that he was about to smash it, he heard footsteps and felt himself curl up in fear. Shit, now Boris was on his way. Fast, he stood and put the remnants of the pen into his pocket and leaned over towards the wall. Now, he just had to hope the man wouldn't open the drawers and see the thing he had taken.

The slate's thoughts went on as he watched Boris get into the room, the head slightly red from his anger. "I hate people that can't do anything by themselves!" he growled and turned to Kai, the red eyes flaming. "You haven't done anything, have you?" Nope, nothing stupid, at least. The slate didn't react, just watched him calmly with that annoying coolness. Trying to calm down, Boris took a deep breath and sat down on the chair again. He didn't look at the desk, but kept his eyes on the teen. A relief for the slate. Really.

"Well, where were we...? Oh yeah. The mind's way of functioning. As I think I said, it has a lot to do with many of the previous things we talked about. It's about psychology, the strengths and weaknesses and some of the other things. If you think about the everyday things, then..."

The slate had ended up hating the 'lectures' Boris held for him nearly every second day. As Boris had said, it was one-sided, but he was not ever going to talk to that man. The words went on outside his head, as the humming of a bee, but today, Kai didn't close his eyes. He held Boris' gaze, made sure the man wouldn't see his missing pen until the teen was well back in his cell and didn't have the evidence of his crime itching right under his shirt. It was luck that he normally stood with his arms crossed, so he could keep the papers from slipping out of his shirt.

The time seemed to drive off in first gear. He was pretty sure a snail walked faster the the time right now, and those red eyes seemed to dig into him. He made his own glare more intense, but realized it made Boris uncomfortable to meet the eyes of his superior in the grandson of that. Just as Boris was about to look away, still talking like he had before without revealing the uneasiness he felt, the slate calmed his gaze and caught Boris' before it got away.

Begging for time to pass, the slate took the first song coming to his mind and began to sing it in his head, still keeping an eye on Boris' gaze (sorry to interrupt, but I kinda love that sentence right there xD). Repeating that odd noise from the song's beginning, he once again got caught up in that annoying song he didn't know the name of. Every word was clear in his head, and still it seemed like it was singing to him personally. The thought of his father came into his mind. That man got whipped every day his son refused to talk. How many day had it been? Over twenty. Over thirty. Even if he hated that man, he couldn't let that happen... No. Susumu Hiwatari could rot in hell, Kai wouldn't care. Hopefully, that man died from those whips.

Illusions are all that crowds a mind, and the slate chose to believe one. Still in thoughts of his hated father, the teen didn't realize they were finally done before the guards came and asked for him to come with them. He followed, still making sure not to drop the maps. If he remembered right, there was a crack between the door the lead to the armory and the floor. If he could push the papers in without them seeing – How the hell was he supposed to do that? The slate teen realized the impossible task he had forced upon himself and walked while he thought. No matter what, he had to gamble. The plan had to come the moment he knew his situation, and those plans he was good at. That was something the beyblade-world always had given him credit for.

They got down the stairs and ended in the hall where his cell laid. They passed the door to the armory, and there really were a crack between the door and floor. A plan came to his mind, and it would give bruises and might not end with success. But it was a plan, and that was the odds for nearly all of those he came up with himself. There were two guards. One of them left his side to open the door to his cell. The other watched him closely, but as he realized the teen wasn't going to move at all, he looked away.

He flipped up his shirt and got out the papers in a few seconds. Before he was seen by the guard who was supposed to watch him, he ran down the hall towards the door to the armory. As he had thought, there was a guard waiting for him by the end of the door. Acting like it surprised him, he let himself fall as he tried to turn around and slid past the door.

The movement was so fast it was nearly unseen, and the guards concentrated more on his body than his hands. He flipped the papers under the door. Then, he gripped the floor, stopped himself from sliding further down the black floor. He looked up and saw a white corner of one of the papers leaning a little out under the door. Stopping himself from cursing – which meant talking – he jumped forward and tried to push it inside while looking like he was still on the run. Now, at least it wasn't so clear. Even though it was still white paper against the black floor, it didn't stand out as much.

The slate stood again and ran forward and tried to jump past the two guards at that end. As he had planned, it they got him and pushed him into the cell. They didn't look at where he had been, only where he was, so they wouldn't see the corner of one of the papers sticking out. Hopefully, none of the other guards would be attentive enough to see the little, white flap under the door.

"Bryan, are you there?" he whispered after a very long while, staring up in the ceiling while laying on his bed. The scarf made sure the cameras couldn't see his lips move, so he wasn't risking Boris seeing them talk. He didn't see it as him, breaking the promise he had given Boris and himself. As long as Boris didn't know of it.

"_Yeah, I am. Anything new?" _The slate didn't fight the smile as he heard the slight eagerness in the emotionless voice. The emerald had waited a very long time for him to move, probably had some plans he couldn't do anything about before the slate had done his things.

"Yes. I have the map in place, and also found a list of guards and some letters from Voltaire to Boris. It's all in Russian, and I'm not good at reading it, so I don't know what Voltaire said, but what I understood seemed interesting. It is where we planned it to be. The lowest level in the building, the door beside Kai Hiwatari's cell. That was the easiest place to place it." It was funny how he had gotten used to talk about himself in third person. It was as if he wasn't Kai anymore. Both in here and in the real life. Maybe it wasn't that funny... Maybe he really was losing himself, as he had feared. But...

"_Good, thank you. Hope it wasn't too hard. Is there anything I can help you with, now you have set me on track? I'm only missing the protection from the sound, thanks to you."_

... he was going to get her.

"Yeah, there is something. Do you have something to pick locks? If you leave it by the armory when you check up on me, I will be able to get it. And I hope you will check up on me fast. They lay under the door so that the guards can see it if they concentrate a little harder than they do now." For a few seconds, Kai laid silently and wished for a yes. He would like to see what was in the lowest drawer, as fast as possible.

"_Yeah, I have some gear that can pick locks on me. The locks on the cells seems to be too complex and take too much time, so you won't be able to use them for that if that was what you was thinking of."_

Kai stopped the smile that was trying to widen on his face. "No. It's just a little something. Please be quick." For two reasons. Even if the guards were too stupid to look what was lying by their feet, they would realize the truth if they finally found it, and he would be in trouble. And the proof of her might be in that locked drawer, or she herself. Kai begged of the other one to be fast.

"_I will move tomorrow."

* * *

_

The next day, when the teens was on their way back to the cell after that days training, Bryan and Tala had found a place beside each other and made sure they were in the part they were supposed to. The emerald-eyed still felt that... aching in his stomach everyday he lived, and since it was months since Boris did what he did, the emerald knew for sure now that it wasn't physical. But it hurt, deep down in his stomach, ached in a way that he wasn't familiar with. A way he had forgotten.

"Tal..." It felt like a very stupid question, and it was that, too. But when it came to feeling, Bryan was stupid. And the question had struggled inside him for at least one month.

The wolf watched him without a word, wiping sweaty hair out of his face. For him, the training didn't work at all, except getting him tired. The cold cells the winter brought cooled him down a lot, but he made sure never to show how bad it was. None of the others had caught a cold, and he would stand out as weak and begin to cough, the worst thing he could imagine. He was a Russian, so he was supposed to at least survive a little better in the cold than the not-Russians. Normally, he actually loved the cold, being the master of an ice-bit beast. But now, without the pure with snow to keep him warm, the big, black blocks made the cold an enemy. "What is it, Bry?" the redhead asked.

"Do feelings hurt? In the stomach... Do you know what I mean?" The first part was hesitating in a way that wasn't Bryan-ish. The last was his normal the-matter-of-fact-and-I-follow-your-orders-tone he always used. The emerald watched his superior with great awareness as they continued the walk, but to his luck, the other understood. Who didn't understand that stomachs was the key to hurting feelings? Bryan, it seemed.

"Yes. Many feelings hurt like that. Both when you are in love and it doesn't work out, or when you hate someone really badly." The emerald was unable to keep up with the words. He knew hate, but hate was his companion not a source to hurt. He didn't know love, but knew what it meant, and it felt wrong it it should be love towards Boris when he had done something so painful. The redhead was able to read the face of his teammate, and he knew had to continue. "Also if you feel disgust, though it mostly is towards yourself, if that is the feeling you seek. And loneliness hurts that way, too."

A slight nod came from Bryan. Even if it hadn't shown itself in many years, loneliness was eating up his chest, not laying in his stomach, struggling like a beast. This did. And it might be disgust. Towards himself. It made sense, and it was more likely that instead of any of the others. Loneliness he had a slight memory of, hate was the only feeling he was sure of, and love was having to give him at least a little pleasure before beginning to hurt. So there was only that one left...

"Bry, has something happened?" The worry was clear in his face as they got near their own cells. He couldn't be everywhere, and someone might have been after Bryan as a weak littlebrother of his while he was trapped in the machines or whenever else he wasn't around. He knew it was stupid to worry so much, but... Bryan was absolutely unable to take care of him self or survive on his own. Even though it was Boris that came to his mind first. Even if it was long ago now, Boris had been able to make Bryan _cry_.

"Yes."

Tala continued to watch his teammate, but the other didn't continue. That meant the other one didn't want to tell. It was now many would do the mistake to try and push Bryan to tell it, because that was what you normally did when someone was hurting because of an event, but Bryan was incapable of saying no to a superior. If the redhead said something like 'Oh, come on, tell it to me', the emerald would. He would have told it already when Tala asked him if something had happened instead of just saying yes if it was something Tala was supposed to know.

"Just remember I'm here when you freely is going to tell me," the wolf said instead, just as the guards came and divided them to their cell. Bryan turned and nodded, then looked past the others. He got eye contact with the citrinite, who nodded, and from one moment to the other, Bryan seemed to disappear in front of Tala's eyes. From one moment to another, the emerald strode past the guards and down the halls.

It took a moment for the guards to realize it, but when one found out and raised his hand to shoot him, Bryan turned a corner and disappeared. "Damn it," Bryan heard one of them growl as he jumped down the stairs. "Maxim, it's one of yours, you go get him!" He looked up and saw a camera, and then, like a bird, tilted his head. It looked directly at him with a vision of about 110 degrees. He got out of the range and down the stairs to the right. To the left, there were stairs leading up, and that wasn't where he was going.

He heard some of the guards come his way as he walked silently down the stairs, making sure never to be seen by the cameras. He took up the pace as he remained silent, and somehow, the sound of heavy footsteps from the guards vanished as they was unable to hear him or get any information from the people by the cameras. And that was exactly what he had planned as he made sure to find the place where none of the cameras would see him.

The longer down he came, the more cameras there got, and soon, he was forced to ignore being seen by the cameras and just ran down the stairs. There were many times where he was able to turn a corner, but he just continued down, begging that they wasn't able to find him until he reached his goal.

He met a place with nearly ten cameras per square meter and turned the nearest corner. It couldn't be made worse than that, and in the hall he had turned to, there were only one camera in all. The only bad thing about this was that he reminded Boris of how bad his security were. But when they finally got out, that wouldn't matter at all, so it wasn't that bad. Bryan just concentrated on walking silently and fast. The hall was lit with torches, and soon, he was able to go down some stairs to his left.

Which he did, and here, these stairs had nearly no cameras. What the deal with that was, he found out as the stairs ended again. No more stairs, but Bryan assumed by the amount of cameras that he was looking at that he had found the right hall. Here, the cameras was set wisely instead of just scaring him off by their number, and the only blind spot he could find was unreachable as long as he was neither a fly or Spiderman. He looked down from the ceiling and looked for some shadows, and walk through them in a very weak hope of them not seeing him. It didn't work, as he heard footsteps just seconds after, and he sprinted forward again and hit the guard in the head with a fist. He man gasped and stepped back, but Bryan weren't done yet, and the man ended with a triple-black eye and a bleeding lip.

The emerald looked up and found it all taped on one of the cameras, but Bryan didn't care right now. He looked down and ran forward again, and suddenly, he looked into some blue eyes framed by blond hair.

"Bryan!" Max gasped, but Bryan pressed a finger to his lip to quiet the blond down. He looked through the shortest hall he had seen until now. There were four cells in all, an a door at the end. You could get inside from both sides of the hall, but from what he had seen, the side he came in from was normally locked with a metaldoor and the first good locks he had seen since he came in. Except the ones on the cell doors, that only looked simple.

There were only a few cameras in the hall, with the ones there was in the cell, and Bryan zigzagged through the room like a drunkard. He got his eyes on the Hiwatari and the looked each other in the eyes for some moment, one of them cool, the other emotionless. Then, Bryan's eyes went over to the door to the armory, and as he found that white flap the other one had talked about the guys might see. He continued his zigzagging, only barely able to stay out of the cameras sight. It was one of the things his special-training had been about a year before he got into his first group. Finding the way through a thing while staying as hidden as possible.

Bryan first bowed down to make sure the papers was not going to break, then he stood up and tried to open the door. Locked. He took his picking gear to pick up the lock, and it was done fast. Slowly, he opened the door, knowing it only was about to get to the hard part as he scooped the papers up and started first with the map. It was merely a drawing of the building, but it was still good. He followed all the paths they had to escape fast before looking at the list of guards. The titles were Commanders, Guards, Coaches, Cooks, Doctors and Punishers, and after having counted them all by scanning, he came to the number of about one hundred and twenty people in all was in the building. The prisoners themselves had to be about fivehundred teens, but still, they had no guns.

Then, he took a look at the letters, but decided he would look at it if he should ever get out. His time was running out, and instead, he took a look around in the armory. There was many guns and some fullbody-armor, and luckily no cameras. With each set was a ear-pad looking, and when he took a closer look at it, he came to the conclusion of them being made of lead and irisium. Why the hell should a soldier want to run around with those? He turned away and looked over the floor fast. There were some boxes with ammo in the corner, and he put the papers down to the bottle. Then, he used one of the picks to scrape the backside of the box. He heard the footsteps as guards finally came. Probably from the toplevels.

"Don't point any guns at me," the emerald said as he heard them come from behind. He had just stood up from locking the door again with his picks as the was able to see him. The picks laid on the ground beside the door. "The door is locked, so I don't have any guns myself." He looked warningly to the three prisoners, and they all understood that they wasn't supposed to tell anyone anything of the truth.

"You really enjoy wasting my time, don't you?" Oh, the leader of the ones here was Maxim. Not surprising, even if the bearded man had some kind of a hunted look in his eyes. He walked over to the emerald, and as he took the teen in the arm and turned him around, one of his feet hit the picks. It skidded over the floor.

Bryan whistled loudly, and that sound surpassed the noise caused by the metal sticks. He was unable to look where they ended up without looking suspicious, and he didn't fight as they dragged him off. They passed the guard he had hit, and a nurse or something like it was attending him. Now, he was going to Boris' office, following the plan. It had went shockingly well... But the hard part came now.

He ended up by the door as he had at the time of his last punishment, and the door opened. He already felt the shivers rolling down his spine when the saw that man, but it didn't pass his face. Instead, he looked emotionlessly at the man. "Thank you, Maxim," Boris said as Bryan was dragged inside. "I honestly thought he was cleverer than that, but it seems I was wrong. Quite disappointing. Just go out again, and I'll give him his punishment." Maxim nodded and walked out of the room, closing the door. The emerald even felt like begging him to stay, but that wasn't according to the plan.

Boris stood from his chair and walked over to the teen with a scary look in his eyes. The emerald couldn't stop himself from backing away, but Boris got a grip at his collar, while the other hand already was going down the teens muscular body. "Thought you were cleverer, as I said. Thought you would understand this happened every time you did anything against me. Didn't I make my point clear?"

"Yes, perfectly clear, sir," the teen said, his whole body shivering.

"And yet you decide to defy me? You really are as disgusting as I thought." The pain in Bryan's stomach was raging, wakening like a beast and tearing his insides apart. Disgusting. Tala must have been right in his assumption. The teen leaned away from the man, but as long as the man was having a grip in his collar, he couldn't do anything. "It doesn't seem like the Bryan I remember, I must say," Boris continued.

"Remember, I'm only taking the punishment of one this time." The voice of the emotionless actually shivered. Along with the rest of his body. Boris just smiled a wicked smiled and let go of the collar to get a grip at his jaw. It seemed every moment the two of them stood so close together was pleasureful for the man, as he felt the body over. He just took the hand up from the teen's pants and stroked his face.

"I know that, and I will take it in my assumptions. But you know, your misconduct was far worse than last time. You fled from your cell, escaped down the halls, beat up a guard and tried to get access to weapons. That's really bad, Bryan. I want you to understand that."

Still, Boris didn't force Bryan into kisses or anything that might bring too much pleasure. He took of the teens shirt again and the hands was once again demanding. Already now, the emerald felt his insides turn around, and he was about to puke on the man. But he forced himself not to as Boris pushed him over towards the metalboard, more gently than last time, since Bryan had gone flying over the table.

Still, Bryan would have fallen if it hadn't been for the older man's hands. It wasn't good. This absolutely wasn't good. And Boris suddenly pushed so hard that Bryan ended up hitting his head against the wall on the board. The chains was around his hands and feet before his head was clear again, and his pants were off. No. It wasn't good. But Bryan didn't regret doing it, not even now.

It all was going according to his plans.

* * *

FINALLY DONE!

Sorry I'm six hours late, but when I finally was able to write at Thursday, my level of inspiration was running low. I couldn't make myself sit down and write for so long because of my restless nature and something that seemed like a tiny writers block. I wrote a little more than half of it today, so weee, I'm finally done!

Anyway, I can't help thinking Bryan is an idiot, even if he is a genius. Dunno if you realized what he is doing, I don't think you are, but anyway, I hate him for it ^.^ And yet, I enjoy it, cause I'm an insane massmurderer! PEACE!

Oh, and because I didn't write anything at all before I should send it, I haven't read it through, so I probably have a lot of grammar and spelling wrong. I'm going to do better next time! Hopefully. I'm pretty sure, cause my inspiration is back.

So, enjoy in joy and my cat is going to have kittens!

And once again SORRY FOR BEING SO LATE (a few hours is still late!).


	8. How far to go for a kitchen?

This week, I'm not sick, only lazy and tired. That means I won't be wasting my time in the bed with nausea, only in it trying to sleep or staring dumbly at the white screen because I'm too lazy to type anything down. As I have got my inspiration back and the exams doesn't pressure me that much anymore (I only have three oral exams left, and two of them I'm absolutely ready for already (English, which I speak better than I write, and Physics, which is one of my best classes because of a nearly autistic memory on facts). It's only Danish that is a problem in, as I practically haven't done any homework my whole life, which means I have no notes and poor knowledge in any of the genres.

But school did one good thing to me this week! I played rugby this Friday, and though I have hit my one knee, hip, back, teeth and arm, I am happy! Rugby is a nearly unknown sport in Denmark, so I had never even considered it. Now, I'm SO beginning to play that shit!

Oh, and just so you know, I don't know if those thingies just use to pick up locks is called picks, so I just call them picks ;) Hope you don't mind xD

Disclaimer: I've never claimed to own beyblade (until now! ... Oh, wops, just kidding ^.^). I own the plot, but the spinning tops, most of the characters and kinda everything other than my computer and my horse isn't mine, sooo...

Warning: I'm tired of warning you ^.^ And what I have to say is forgotten in the time from the last time I freaking killed a character...

Anyway, I will stop my babbling, as my personal life is personal (and boring (OMG, I was about to write Boris! I have a Boris personal life! o.O xD)). So, we're on with the story, and I'm liking this chapter a little. But I will say, check out the jediam1-youtuber, he has made the perfect song 'August Rain'. Check him out, please, he deserves to be known! He gives me the chills and tears in my eyes (none of them fell, but since nothing is able to make me cry (even if I'm able to act a crying, it's one of my specialties), he did an amazing thing!). I'm determined to follow his work from now on.

Reviews:

GatewaysDiary: God you are loyal, it makes me proud! That's also why I have a personal request to you ^.^ Wouldn't you mind explaining in detail the American school system? I'm beginning to get an idea for my next story, but since the Danish system isn't the most known one, I hoped you could help me by explaining how the American works exactly? It would help me a lot, since I only have the danish point of view on the American school system, and we wasn't told anything about how the classes work, which ironically is what I need to know about... Just answer in a review or message, it would really help me ^.^ Also, I'm not gonna answer anything about her, other than that I have already mentioned her as something Kai misses. Sorry, but it's my own, little secret *witchy, sniggering laughter*

My Own Demise: Well, the thing is, I woke up quite early in the morning (I'm a morning person) and turned on my computer, and when I had logged in to MSN, it told me I had six new messages. One was from GatewaysDiary's review. Another was from my mom. And the last four was from you! A few minutes after, another E-mail came, and so it went on until you had read my whole story! That's a very... fantastic way to begin a day xD I'm so thanking you for making my boring day (I'm about to go out and help my dad with the garden and is literally standing in dung and potatoes most of the day. I'm not sulking, cause I love working and it's exhausting and I'm using my body and all, but I could sit in here and write, right!). I was honestly beginning to doubt the story, and I know it's stupid, but I'm a teenager and an outcast and female, so I easily get insecure, and I hate it xD But I have to answer you as I'm supposed to, and first: WAR JUNKIES FOR THE WIN! I hate war nowadays, pure peace has no guns as I said some chapters back, but god, how INTERESTING and FANTASTIC isn't it? Weapons, warfare, the tactics, the killing (I'm noooot sounding like a maniac right now xD)! I love war movies, I love history, I love it! I love those two wars, seriously, it's so instructive (feels like the wrong word for it, but whatever!)! I really couldn't help taking it in my story! WWI is my favorite war, really... Or I think so, as the war in the pacific in WWII is very good too, but... I think I'll go with the first ^^ Second: I'm a perfectionist xD A really weird one of the kind, as the outside things like how I look, how others look, if my room and surroundings is clean or dirty, such things, they totally doesn't matter to me xD But if I have a personal rule, a rule in my mind, I MUST follow it. So, I have to send a chapter every Sunday, HAVE TO, and I have to send it at one special hour. If I don't, I get pissy on myself (as I was last weekend because I was late). Kinda stupid, but my mind works like that. I have no desire for myself or others to look in some special way, I don't wear make-up because looks is the smallest part of my life, but when it is something no-one can see because it's just a trail of thought, I'm totally overreacting xD That's the reason I have stopped eating candy, for another example. So I'm ready to wait a looong while for others to come up with their chapters, but I'm insane enough myself to make my life nearly autistic in my need to follow my own rules ^.^ And third and last and not least and so on: I LOVE your rambling, I'm soo totally following you xD Keep it up, rambling is the prove that you have a mind! (And that it is totally fucked up, but whatever, I'm the worst rambler I know (Is rambler even a word? xD))

NOOOOO, I made another one of those long thingies -.-' It's not that bad, but I shouldn't write that much!

Lastly, I saw the movie 'An Education' and most admit I found it boring. Had thought a lot of good things about it, so I probably just had a little too high expectations. If you watch it, you might learn a lesson, but that doesn't mean I will study any harder than I do already. I have my A+ in Geography, I'm already good, so why the hell should I begin to do homework?

* * *

How far to go for a kitchen?

* * *

The slate was exhausted from training, but of course, he didn't show it. Instead, he just laid in his bed and counted things to make the time pass. The blocks were big, but it took about six blocks to form one row of the whole back wall, where the bed was. And four to the two other walls in his cell. That meant the ceiling was six multiplied by four, and that meant twenty four blocks for the whole ceiling. When he had counted the amount of blocks to the whole sides, he began counting how many times his tap beside the toilet was dripping before he got bored with that game too.

Restlessness had never been a problem of his, but this time, this hour, Kai couldn't help it. When he had gotten back for about ten minutes ago, he thought Bryan would already be back, and would have done whatever he had planned, but Kai had already checked. The picks weren't at the door, and the door was still revealing that little piece of paper. Every time he heard the footsteps of a guard, the adrenaline began racing through his body. He feared the guard would see it, and that they would figure out what happened when he 'attempted to escape'. Had Bryan really planned anything? Maybe he should just stay by the rules he had grown up with, even if it was rules Voltaire was the maker of.

Don't trust anyone. They will only hurt you.

Do not expect others are able to do the job. Do it yourself if possible.

Don't bound to anyone. Every relationship requires something of you, and you shouldn't give anyone anything.

Only trust yourself. You know your own abilities, while others will most likely disappoint you.

The slate didn't even flinch at the thoughts, even though that was his normal reaction when he thought back to those times. When he was a pet more than a grandson, when he was supposed to do as told and not question, when he was being raised to lead a company that had hurt him both physically and mentally.

Now, he simply thought of it as if it made sense. It was scary, as he felt himself grow more and more back into his old, uncaring, hating self. But it was comfortable too, as he knew these narrow limits better than those broad ones they had in 'the real world'. And in that real world, he had never been good at understanding the limit and boundaries that actually were. In here, it all were set, and it was just to follow as soon as you understood.

These thoughts were even more scary, and he went back to counting things, this time the bars. The dripping was boring and annoying even when he didn't count it. In the other end of the hole, there had been some turmoil, but he hadn't been able to figure out what it was.

Twenty minutes after the turmoil, he heard weak footsteps. It was just some weak whisper, not worth trouble, but then he heard the guard's faster, heavier footsteps mix with the nearly inaudible ones. Sitting up, Kai got over to the bars and looked to the side. As did the other two prisoners, and just at that second, the owner of the inaudible feet began to run. It was obvious that it was that one of the two, as the one the slate was sure was a guard was far too loud when walking to be that silent when he ran. Of course it was more noisy than walking, but that was too much to ask for.

The running stopped, and Kai recognized the sound of fists meeting flesh. After the first hit, there was a pause of right around a few seconds. Then four more hits was heard, and from the loud smacks it caused, the slate was sure that whoever made those blows was not someone to fool around with. The one knew where and how to hit, and the loud thud told him it was the guard who was the punching bag, and the punching bag only wins when it is fighting with the amateur. Before the Hiwatari was able to see who had nicely dealt hits out, Max gasped the answer.

"Bryan!"

A second later, the emerald came in sight, showing a face with both worry, displeasure and concentration. And a finger pressed on his lips. The slate couldn't help smiling, thinking of how good the emerald could hide his lack. Slowly looking them all over, Kai was sure the emotionless let a little of his hate be shown when they looked each other in the eyes. Many things could be doubted about that teen, but his ability to hate wasn't one of them. He was more capable than anyone else the slate knew, even Boris and Voltaire included. And Kai himself too. Cause at least, hate wasn't their fuel.

Then, Bryan continued down the hall, and at first, Kai couldn't figure out his movement. Then, the slate's gaze got up to where the emerald was looking, and he found the cameras, who were moving slowly from side to side. It required a lot of calculation and logic to figure out the cameras movements, but it didn't seem to bother the gray haired teen. Not to Kai's surprise, since the emerald had proven to be a good strategist.

Then, the emerald sat down on one knee and began picking with the metal sticks Kai was yearning to borrow. It took surprisingly little time before the door opened, and it closed just before the cameras could turn to see the teen walk through, him seeming to have disappeared. Kai looked at his own hidden camera for a second, happy that it was only those in the hall that moved.

He had to wait. He could see that Bryan had already left the metal sticks outside the door, but as long as Bryan wasn't gone and the slate was locked in the cell, he wouldn't be able to get them. Maybe it wasn't that much of a plan. It was stupid if he wasn't even able to_ get_ those stupid picks.

It took nearly ten minutes before Bryan came out again, and surprisingly, it was right when the cameras was unable to see him. He closed the door, came into the cameraview for one turn, and then dropped to sit on one knee again as soon as the camera was unable to see him again. He picked the lock again, showing of his skills with those sticks. And then, footsteps was heard. Finally, Boris' guards had decided to stop the emerald. He had probably put up a fight with them even before he had reached the hall. Maxim looked very pissed.

And he had a troubled expression too, that made Kai smile. He nearly looked like a hunted animal, corned by his enemies. That only meant the slate was right in his assumptions, and that really was worth smiling for. They watched the gray haired teen for a moment, then one of them lifted his gun. The armory could mean...

"Don't point any guns at me. The door is locked, so I don't have any guns myself." The emerald looked at the three in the cells with a warning in his bright, green eyes before turning to Maxim. Kai already knew. Of course, the slate wouldn't tell anyone anything about the little trip the emerald had done.

Especially since the people that was interested in those news were the ones that was interested in his 'abilities'. That ability was mostly concerning his lust for power, the one he hated himself for having. But also the fact that he could control Black Dranzer and that he had the flesh and blood he had. In the sick mind of Voltaire's, no one else than he could lead this thing when he died. He wouldn't even consider giving the power to Boris, even if they had married themselves into family-relation.

In the beginning, it was all about Voltaire making sure he could control Boris until Boris got infected enough with his ideas. It hadn't taken long, even though Boris had been a communist and claimed he believed in things Voltaire showed him he actually didn't. Boris had had something in him that had made Voltaire mix with that 'communist-filth' who had been ruling Russia at the time.

"You really enjoy wasting my time, don't you?" The cold in Maxim's voice was surprisingly strong. It seemed he had grown to dislike the emerald teen. Kai couldn't figure out why, though it might simply be what he claimed right now. The emerald gave him too much trouble because he didn't follow normal schedule. But the slate hadn't seen much of the problems the bearded man said he caused, and it seemed pretty simpleminded of the soldier. The slate thought higher of him than that.

When Maxim got over to take the emerald with him, the emerald did something Kai hadn't known he was able to. A second, he heard a metallic ringing, and looked down to find out what had happened, but then, it disappeared in the sound of the emerald teen's whistling. Somehow, the slate's violet eyes were _forced_ up to look at the gray-haired, _forced_ to stare at the emotionless, who for a second dropped the slightly worrying mask. Then, it was back on as soon as he stopped whistling, and getting a death glare from the soldier that nearly was worth a Hiwatari, the emerald was taken away to get his punishment.

The slate lowered his gaze to the floor as soon as the emerald was out of sight. What had that sound been? The metal had been ringing through the hall until Bryan had done a clever move by craving attention. How he had succeeded getting everyone to look at him was interesting, but Kai was not going to think it over. It seemed normal that everyone looked at you when you began whistling out of nowhere, even if there was something else you was thinking about.

"What was that about?" the two others questioned each other. None of them turned to Kai. After months of silence from the slate, they had given up talking with him. He saw the looks they gave him, they stared at him with both sorrow and worry. As if he didn't have enough to worry about, the two of them seemed absolutely sure that he was... going to the other side again. But when they were in here, there was no way he could rip off their heads for thinking that about him. Besides, he had left them many times before. And her too...

If it hadn't been for her, he wouldn't be in this situation. He missed her. He couldn't believe he had grown so dependent of her, that he couldn't stop thinking of her now that she was gone. It was a long times since he had last taken her for granted. He had done the worst thing he could and had bounded a deep bound to her.

Now, her warmth that he only had grown used to throughout the last couple of years were gone. And if it hadn't been for the Bladebreakers, he would never had trusted her. Even before them, she was pouring out her love to him. Without getting any effort or response on his side. Selfish as he had been, he had thought her weak though being strong, knowing that the stronger was in a dark place. And even knowing that the stronger was able to tear him apart and make him a monster hadn't stopped him from... thinking those things about her. But she had taken it without ever letting it stop her from loving him. She was the one that really loved him.

And that was scary.

Cause he had left her, and even now, he was doubting if he should save her. He should. He had to. He was too low a scum for her to die for. As long as he was a Hiwatari, he didn't deserve her. She was too warm a being to be with a Hiwatari. She was the reincarnation of love.

..........

Or something like that.

His mind was elsewhere, trailing off to the forbidden topic he continuously thought of. _Her_. She was hurting him for hurt her. But he had to do what he was supposed to, and with a smirk of those that normally meant someone was getting hurt for his comfort, he scanned the floor again.

By the door to the armory, the picks were missing. Now he knew what he was looking for. It made perfect sense. That was why he was unable to see the missing thing. The picks were black, the floor was black, and he hadn't been ready to see through the total blackness. He chose that the best way of doing anything was to fumble for it, as the light was to dim and weak to show the picks.

There were six in all from what he had seen Bryan use, and to his surprise, it only took him seconds to find the first three without needing to move. Then, he paced over to the bars about two meters beside the place he had been before. Unfortunately, he couldn't find anything, and continued pacing back and forth and reaching out from the bars, trying to reach out and grab one of the picks. He had three, and three was enough, but the rest of them might be found by the wrong people!

But they were nowhere to be found, and Kai ended up sighing and leaned back against the wall, standing up. Damn blackness. Nothing was visible in it! He didn't mind darkness, but darkness was warm and secure. This, on the other hand, was simply blackness, black bars, black walls, and stupid, black metal sticks! It wasn't even dark because of those lamps lit the hall with stupid, their yellow light! God, for what reason did you give Bryan damned black picks instead of white or blue or... Even pink would be better than black!

The slate breathed in deep without showing his inner anger and got himself calmed down. If he couldn't find it or see it, then it might just be so that Boris and the guards wouldn't find it either. He didn't have to worry, and had a chance to look for it the next time he got out of the cell. Nothing was a problem, no, he just had to wait a little.

He watched the three picks he did have and couldn't help a smirk. He would at least be able to open the drawer in the office, and that was what he cared for right now. He might be able to find her. He let himself get just a little hope, knowing he needed it to survive here.

* * *

At least this time, the emerald teen didn't fall into his cell. Even if it wasn't the right words to use about a subject like that, Boris had been nicer to him this time than the last. It didn't stop his fire from burning, and inside of him, a beast was rolling around, wanting to make him cry and show the feeling he didn't have. Or at least thought he didn't. It was so confusing. That beast in his body couldn't be a feeling. Bryan didn't have feelings. Bryan was punished for feelings. Bryan would be destroyed if he had feeling...

It can't be feelings, Bryan thought as he sat down on the cold, black floor. I have envied those with feeling for a long time. Those that is able to smile a true smile, able to love, those who can hate without having the hate control them. Even if envy is a feeling, it has always only been faint. I know I do do envy them, but I also know that I don't feel that feeling fully, either. Feelings bring smiles and happiness, even those who mostly makes them sad. Cause only because of sadness, the world have a brighter light. But this... Beast that is eating me away doesn't bring happiness. Neither sadness. It's only... unpleasureful.

He took his head out between the bars just as Tala called his name. "What the hell was that about, Bryan?" It was a snarl of both anger and disappointment, but also half-hidden worry. Of course Tala was unable to hide his feelings when it was about his friends, and that was good. Cause Bryan knew at least one person who could look like he didn't care about his friends at all, at that wasn't positive. "Why did you run of? If you had told me anything, I could have come with you and helped you!"

"I just had to do things," Bryan said, eying Brooklyn before looking at the wolf again. The citrinite shook his head. That meant not yet, but hopefully, it also meant that the woman was coming. Else, Brooklyn would tell him that the plan had failed. They had both agreed on that. And Brooklyn was the man to know such things. "I did everything I ran for, so it's okay." He let a hand go through his _very_ short hair and leaned against the bars, making sure not to let any pressure go on his bottom.

"At least that is good enough, but you didn't have to get punished again. You don't know how terrifying it is to know that creep has such... influence on you," the redhead said, and even without words, the others nodded. They all agreed on that, sure. And Tala was absolutely right about that. The emerald had no idea. But whatever it was about, it wasn't worth it.

"Yes it was."

Tala glared, both surprised and angry. "_What?_" Unlike what you might think, it wasn't the emerald speaking. Instead, the citrinite looked lazily at the others. They still couldn't help being suspicious about this teen, but the pure one didn't seem to mind it at all. It was nothing out of the ordinary for him. When you was a natural, you was going to be hated for now reason at all. The reason was only that you were a natural, and that meant different. And all know that the different is the lowest creatures to those who didn't see themselves as different.

Besides, he had already seen them come to hate him, so should he be surprised? "It was worth it. Or is going to, if things work out." Technically, he was quite sure it would work out to the best for them this time. Or else, he wouldn't talk like that. Future was nearly certain.

"So you used Bryan and let him get punished like that so we all are going out?" Falak asked, and it seemed the thought disgusted her. Enrique, though, seemed like thinking it wasn't wrong, to use people for the best of the most. But to make sure he didn't get his head bitten off, he kept it away from the redhead. Also, Bryan nearly rolled his eyes. He knew when he was being used, even did it as a kid when Boris persuaded him into doing bad things like killing for him and a little drug dealing behind Voltaire's back. It just never occurred, or would occur, that he would question his superior.

"No, he used me to get information, and I agreed to make sure it wouldn't happen to much. His punishment, that is. The faster we get out, the less will happen to all of us. Even though I, right now, am more worried about Bryan than you."

It was stupid for them to fight over it, and only seemed even more stupid cause Brooklyn didn't even sound a little enthusiastic. The white teen had that I-don't-care-about-anything-as-long-as-I-can-pet-my-butterflies-attitude that he always had. His words, on the other hand, revealed that he might care more than he seemed to. But he didn't have his heart in the fight, and just watched his opponents with uncaring apatite eyes while twirling the orange hair around his finger. Unlike all the others, he had managed to keep the hair not-greasy. The same with his white clothes, that wasn't even dirty or wrinkled.

Still, it was stupid, and until the next factor of the plan would come, the emerald teen wasn't going to listen to them. It was too much about Tala being displeased and hurt because Bryan had been given the punishment without him being able to prevent it, or even had been aware of it, and other things that was too emotional for the emotionless to handle or understand. So the emerald walked back and laid down on the hard bed, looking up at the black ceiling again.

Then a more or less pleasant aspect came in, even though the subject they was going to talk about wasn't the most secure for his side. But the emerald teen had to keep contact with his Rook to win.

"_Are you there?" _the voice asked after a few minutes of silence, where the other teens had been busy quarreling over nothing. It seemed Brooklyn was beginning to find it very boring, but didn't back down because it meant he should walk all the way from the bars to his bed, and of course, that was a far too long walk for him to take! That only meant the voice had chosen a good time to take the emerald's attention away from the other inmates.

"Yes. The picks are in place as we planned, though... they might not be where they are supposed to. The guard taking me away kicked them, so they are longer down the hall on the right hand of the door to the armory."

"_I have been there when I heard you were out, but was unable to find them. Was beginning to fear you had tricked me... But if that is the case, I will check up on it as soon as possible."_

"Good. It might be some trouble. But just look for some black metal on the floor." Hell, everything was black, how should it be visible? That might be a part of the plan that had gone wrongly... But it had been out of his hands. If it had been any other guard than Maxim, who was quite pissed off by Bryan's 'attitude', it probably wouldn't have happened. Other guards wouldn't have come over to him like that. Not as harsh, at least.

The emerald noticed the silence of the others and realize the sound of footsteps coming closer. It was the sound of high heels against hard stone, the clickingsound that was able to drive you insane if you were surrounded by those on the street. But now, it gave Bryan enough mental pleasure that it made him smile, for just a short moment. He sat up and flinched the slightest when he ended up sitting with all his weight on his bottom. But he didn't change the way he sat, but continued to sit like that, waiting for her to come into view. His face was blank as the mental pleasure had gone again, leaving him into his dark hole.

The part-Thai woman stood by him and glared him down with her black, Asian eyes. Following the plan. She only received his slight interest as he continued to sit in such a way it hurt, but slowly, the pain was growing into pleasure. The two of him watched each other, Bryan obviously not caring at all, while she was killing him with her eyes. Eyes filled with hate, love, hurt and despair.

"I told you something. I gave you a warning, and you didn't listen. Who do you think you are? You are disgusting."

Well, it's you who is in love with a creep, as Tala would have said. But I don't care. Why should I? You are now giving me exactly what I wanted. I probably need to thank you, whenever we get that far with the plans. You are the most important piece on my board right now, Queen.

"How dare you try to take him away from me."

The teen knew why she was so persistent in her beliefs. Boris had that power, and had showed it to Bryan many times without the man even registering it. She was so sure Boris was blinded in his love with her so that it couldn't be him who was acting against their love. That meant Bryan was to blame, and Bryan was in for it in her mind. If it hadn't been for his past, he would have felt bad for her. But she had just helped them so much she didn't even realize it. It was good Boris, the King, had influenced her so much, taking the Queen for a Pawn.

"How dare you try to take my man away from me!"

In Tala's head, a alarm clock was ringing as it had been earlier that day. When they had talked about Bryan's might-be-feeling. He had gotten the same punishment as before, that was obvious, and she had come too. Claming that he was destroying something she had with someone. A man. She had done some of the same a few months back, as far as he was able to remember. But it couldn't be... The wolf wasn't allowing himself to think that.

"I warned you before. I'll make you pay."

Well, _this_ was certainly **_not_** in his calculations. He watched the gun in her hands, still not reacting. He had moved so little she might even wonder if he was sleeping with his eyes open. The gun was slowly lifted, pointed right at his head. Questioningly, he tilted the head slightly, but nothing changed in his traits. No emotion at all. Then he rose and slowly walked closer to her, until only a few steps and the iron bars was between them.

"You are pitiful," the gray haired teen said. No emotion showed in him. Nothing at all. None of the pity he said she was worth. No anxiousity because of her 'actions'. He was just talking like nothing was threatening his life right at that moment. Like she wasn't pointing a gun at him. But then again, why should he fear? How could he fear? For someone who felt neither physical or mental pain, Hell wasn't going to be bad. And Bryan wouldn't go to the pleasureful places after killing off _her _life. That special life that was the first to come to his mind. And many others, of course, all the other lives too. Even if Boris had found a hole in his defense, Hell wasn't going to be bad for this one. And he wasn't even a religious person, as he had a mind of a scientist and found flaws in God and Satan's theory. He was still sure you would go to either a good or a bad place.

"If even I can see it, you should be able to see it yourself. He doesn't love you, and will never love you, cause love has never been in his heart. As sad as that is. The only thing he know is how to use people, manipulate them into believing things. We share that thing in common, lack of love and ability to love. Should I want a creep like-"

BANG!

The teen was still watching her with his green emerald-eyes. He hadn't even flinched or blinked when the gun was fired, hitting the wall behind him as the bullet flew past him some inches from his head. The woman still stared at him with her hating, black eyes, though they had widened when the gun had fired. "-him?" the emerald finished the nearly whispered question. The woman gritted her teeth and narrowed her black eyes as the Queen once again tried to locate a way to get the Knight gone, though the Knight continuously jumped out of her way.

BANGBANG!

Two more shots were fired fast after each other. None of them even touched his skin. "As I thought. You are one of those who can't kill. Sad..." The Knight got in a safe position to kill the King off without the Queen noticing it. He was close to calling a checkmate.

BANG!

After one last shot, she finally let her gun drop. The hate for killing had been as clear for the teen, as with her insecurity with the gun. She wasn't comfortable with the weapon, and didn't even unload or secure it before she let it slide into her pocket. Not that he was going to tell her, as she was about as brainwashed as he and would never turn side. She was better for them sick or death, so why not let her own gun do it?

Then the Queen turned and ran off, leaving her beloved King to death. Still without knowing. The teen didn't care, but thought he might had seen tears flow in her eyes. Bryan immediately jumped over to the bars and leaned over to Brooklyn's cell. "You got it?" the emerald asked without feeling, and the citrinite Bishop nodded his head. For once, the smile on the Bishop's face wasn't lazy or uncaring. It was triumphant, like he had won something more than those boring beybattles he always won anyway. Something had definitely gone right, and that meant it had gone right for them all.

"Yes I did. All the way from here. She moved directly back to her work. Or will move, that is, even though she hasn't reached the room yet. I have gone through it a few times to make sure I remembered it," the normally lazy teen answered. In these minutes, though, he was absolutely awake. As soon as this was over, it was obvious he was going back to his none-caring state of butterfly-loving laziness.

"Good. Tell me the route, then tell Tala the same. He is better at remember such things than I am," Bryan said, taking advantage of his own redheaded King's abilities. In the ordinary game, the King was annoyingly helpless, but in real life, the King was just the person whom everything would fall apart without. And for Bryan, if he lost the superior, he had nothing to fight for and the game was lost.

The citrinite nodded and began explaining to him what he had seen. While that, the emerald teen nodded as he smiled from mental pleasure. It had gone according to plan all the way through, and even though he was feeling awful because of Boris' treatment, it had been worth it. He was only a Knight, and the Knight wasn't really fit to make the checkmate. But with its special moving pattern, it was normally one of his most important piece until he reached the endgame. But the endgame was setting in, and the Knight had already been sacrificed for the king.

When Brooklyn was done explaining the route for Bryan, the emerald once again went back in his cell and laid down on the bed. "I'm here again," he reassured his Rook, knowing the 'Kinda an influential Helper' had heard the shots and might assume him dead. He only barely heard the sigh of relief, that, if possible, was even more silent than their normal talking. Sometimes, Bryan wasn't even able to hear what he himself said, even though he heard the Rook loud and clear. Just as it seemed his Rook did when he talked.

"_Good." _The short, nonchalant answer triggered something in him, and he was once again bothered by that first sentence he had heard from the other one. _"K... Kinda an influential helper"_ the other one had called him self, and it seemed to be true. But there also had to be more in it. Also, that hesitation in the sentence that didn't fit in to the personality he had put on whoever was sitting in his other end.

That answer he had just gotten reminded he him of Kai, but that didn't make sense, when he was getting more and more certain Kai was one of them. 'Good' as an answer to a person who might had been shot just a little while ago? But the slate teen was following Boris nearly every day. Though no feeling told anything about the teen's perspective, that didn't matter. No sane person would expect the one and only to show any feeling.

But the emerald teen decided not to bother himself with it, and got on with what this conversation was supposed to be about. "Might be. I got what I wanted. Do you think you can get to the map the next time you go for getting the picks? I have something I want to be drawn into it, but it might not be possible for myself. I have to keep a low profile and behave, as I'm ready to flee at any moment the weather gets better." There were a long silence.

He heard Brooklyn stop whispering to Tala outside, and two of his most important pieces went quiet again, as if the King, Bishop and Rook had made an agreement to leave the building silently empty. Longer down the hall, he heard a male voice of a boy that sounded slightly younger than himself begin to speak with his inmates, and Bryan used the silence to wonder how many other people in this building was plotting to flee from this place. Probably most of those who was able to cooperate with their neighbors.

"I'll take that as a no. Don't think I am angry because of it. I know you might not be in a position to do it, so don't push it. You are a strong ally of mine. I'm not interested in losing you, so please don't push it." It wasn't changing his plans. No, he would still be able to get them out. Of course they would get out, but it would still be a little harder if he couldn't-

"_Wait... I guess I owe you, since those picks are pretty important to me. Yes, I will try to get into the armory when I go looking for the picks. Tell me what I am supposed to do." _Once again, it seemed Bryan was lucky. The wind was blowing in his direction. The Rook was able to stop the Pawns that was standing in his way, so the Knight could succeed the checkmate

He had won this time. Boris was going down. The emerald had all his pieces put together, and now only winter stopped them from getting out. And Brooklyn would never have been so eager to do anything if he wasn't sure it would succeed. Already then, Bryan had been nearly certain of their escape.

Two weeks later, the icy season was still a stick in the wheel for the group, leaving the black halls freezing for everyone in the cells. The slate teen was nearly certain they was about the end of February now. The worst cold was supposed to have drifted off by now, but it might be one of the less-sane years where the snow kept a tight grip to the continent for months. To be honest, the violet-eyed hoped so. His research of her was still not progressing.

The lights got turned on, telling them the morning had come. Or that was what Kai assumed, as they were unable to follow the patterns of actual life in their closed darkness, where even the most healthy, sunburned person had gotten pale.

To some people, people like him, it wasn't that bad. When he was in the actual abbey, this way of staying would have been a dream, a door that let a little light get into his never-breaking darkness. But unfortunately, it was the fewest people who was feeling like that. The spoiled brats of normal life would see this as Hell, and it might be. In some ways. It was purgatory, a foretaste of the suffering the actual Hell, a warning to those who was going to Heaven and live their peachy lives there.

Kai hated those spoiled brats. He had ever since he fled from the abbey. When he found out the majority of the people surrounding him in the Russian capital lived a life with families that loved them. Already there they were spoiled enough to him not liking them, but it wasn't the worst of it.

The worst was their level of consuming. How they took food for granted because they wanted a new playstation or just had to have those clothes. How they was able to forget the kind touch of a trustworthy person because the popular over there might think them cooler. How they took the actual life for granted in their materialism and chose to take appearance over quality.

Those were spoiled brats. That was also his reason not to trust the Bladebreakers, and why he had had easier to like Rei over the others. Rei wasn't the same kind of idiot as they were. Of course, he still thought far to highly of friendship and trust, but he hadn't ever needed TV or cell phones or all the other luxuries other people buried themselves in. It was disgusting.

Kai was going to Hell. In the abbey, it was ironically enough impossible for a person to believe in God. But if he even had the slightest chance of getting to Heaven even if he didn't believe the religions, he would go to Hell. For the simple fact he shared blood with two of the Devil's most beloved demons. Not counting his father or mother, who deserved the title just as much.

He heard the guard come rolling with the food cart, the screeching wheels revealing his coming. The violets didn't turn away from seeking sunlight in the black ceiling. He didn't care about food right now, knowing this was a day Boris would take him to his office, and then, he might get the chance of seeing the lowest drawer. But that, he didn't care about either. He was trapped in a past of hate and... confusion, and he hadn't had contact with anyone that was thinking as a normal person for so long he was doubting what he should think of anything.

Of course, he had always claimed to be a strong, not caring, independent person, not a... what he actually was. He had the foundation of another world, the Hell on earth called the abbey. That was where his views of the world came from. That was what he had learned. And that was what he had found out was a sick way of thinking and acting through the Bladebreakers and... Well, they were the main reason, but people like Tala, Ian and Spencer, who was good at going on despite the past was also important. Bryan didn't count, but Bryan never counted.

Now, he had been away from the world for many months and hadn't talked to anyone for the same amount of time. If it had been anyone else, they would have ended up crazy, but that was what he was doing now. Normal persons weren't able to keep sane after a single month, but normal people wasn't used to keep their mouth shut for days because there was no need of talking.

But the point was that he was growing confused. He had just begun to get used to how the world had been, how life was actually supposed to be for a person. That a _good_ family and friendship was the foundation of a person. That trust didn't mean only hurt, but also comfort. That feelings, both happiness and sadness, was something you shared.

Despite what they thought, what they told and what they had seen, the Bladebreakers was his teachers, and he was their student. He showed them techniques and physical training, the only thing in life he had straight. There, he was their teacher.

But in the everydaylife, where the others had joked around, when they had come out from a battle with happiness after a loss or how they comforted each other and told each other that "It is okay to lose sometimes" and actually mean the words.

Even if he wasn't participating, he was watching. Always watching. Not like a babysitter, making sure they didn't bite the heads off one of them because of something. That was something those three had done so rarely he could only remember once it had happened. No, he watched as the oblivious two-year-old, even though he had never admitted it.

Slowly, step by step, they had learned him to crawl. On a lake in Russia, where he had tried to steal their bitbeasts. Then, at an even slower pace, they had gotten him on his legs, and he had just been about to take the step without holding their hand, his grandfather chose to toy with his life all over again.

And without his tutors, Kai didn't know what to believe. His instincts still told him his grandfather's ways were right. That he had never been supposed to go out and see people live their lives happily, because they hadn't ever suffered.

And by now, only two things kept him from going to his grandfather's side. One of them was hate, but his grandfather was known to be able to tear such insignificant things down.

The other was her.

And he had to get her.

Finally actually wakening, the slate sat up in the bed and took the food the guard had skidded into his cell. He ate it without enthusiasm and waited for the guards to come and take him to the trainingroom, so all the other inmates could see what a traitor he was when he followed Boris. Kai was aware of that plan, as he had heard it working through Bryan, but he couldn't do anything about it. And his pride kept him from showing his disgust towards the creep when he walked out the room beside him.

And right as he was, Boris came. It didn't take the man long to drag him down the halls for what seemed like the hundred time and get him into the office, and on the way, the slate knew all his previous 'friends' and fans and whoever was in the room was staring at him as he left. This time, there was no effort to even try to listen to the man's words. Boris was talking to a wall, as even the wall seemed to look more at him than the human. It triggered his temper, but the slate didn't fear him anymore.

He could threaten with hits and whips as much as he wanted, but it was all about his grandfather getting Kai's trust back, and even Boris realized you didn't get that by punishing or threatening the person. That proved the average IQ of Voltaire's underlings. So instead of beginning to yell, Boris sat tapping one of his pens in the board. Slowly, the rhythm got faster and more aggressive, but the violets didn't give him any pleasure of blooming. It only took half an hour before the slate's attitude forced Boris up from the chair and striding out of the room in anger. The purplehaired had a bad day, so Kai wasn't alone with that. But it was the bad day-thing that made him needing to make life difficult for the man. The slate's anger towards the world, not to mention himself, made him take a decision to forget all caution.

So the second Boris was out, Kai was over by the desk and down on one knee. He took Bryan's picks out of his pocket and took them into the lock on the lowest drawer. It might be the key to find her in that drawer, even though he thought it was too close to him for them to actually keep her there. He heard the click and smirked to himself as he opened it.

A second later it was closed again.

The slate had a hard time keeping his mask as he stared at the drawer with disgust. Then, the violets narrowed slightly as he opened the drawer again, and the mask was back on when he looked down. Different kinds of 'toys'. Everyone knew Boris was a creep and sick, but _that _sick? Some of the sex toys was obviously used to give the user electrical shocks, and the slate was quite sure no person would find that pleasureful. Dildoes in different sizes, vibrators, blindfolds, butt plugs, anal beads... He could continue for long, but he didn't know most of their names (A/N: don't think wrongly of me, seriously, I might be crazy, but I had to look up different kinds of sex-toys on the Internet to be certain of anything! xD).

All the things was set in a special order, but some of them weren't. The things that laid in the top, probably the ones used last, was some of those electrical devices. Another that hadn't been put in place was one of the bigger dildoes and some needle-like thing he didn't even know existed. The slate closed the drawer and suppressed a tremor. Very, _very _sick, that creepy bastard. But Kai made sure it wasn't obvious for the outside as he locked the drawer with the picks and was about to stand up again, when Boris opened the door again. The man glared at him with raging eyes when he saw the teen sit down by the desk.

"A pity for you that someone already have taken away most of my things, don't you think?" the man spat angrily as he walked closer. Kai watched him with his cold, violet eyes and slid the picks into his pocket. He might be in a very bad situation right now, even if Boris wasn't comfortable of punishing him as long his grandfather might find out about it. His grandfather knew him well enough to know physical punishment was the worst thing to use on the slate if they wanted him to cooperate.

The man took another step and gripped Kai by the collar. The slate didn't even react when Boris turned them both around and pressed him up against the wall beside the black metal board. They looked each other in the eyes for a long time, the young one cold, the older furious. Then Boris let go of his shirt, of course losing. No one could win a glaring fight towards a Hiwatari. "I don't want to look at you. Get out of here, now." The slate lifted his eyebrow slightly, then he turned and began walking out of the room. Just outside, a guard stood and began walking beside him without touching.

The bad mood hadn't gone away, and the slate was still needing something to help him get out of the mood. He had still one thing he owed Bryan for the things he was about to cause the emerald, but he needed a favor. So just when they got down to the hall with his and his teammates cells, he turned and looked at the guard. Then... He kicked him in the gut and bowed down to take his gun and keys and looked down the hall. The armory was close to him when he came in from this side, but he had to be sure they didn't know he had gotten into the armory. As Bryan had done two weeks ago. He could use Bryan's way to get on without being seen by the cameras, if he was cautious.

He looked down at the guard, who was about to get up again, and shot him in the leg and shoulder. Then he began walking down the hall, following nearly the same pattern as Bryan would have done and then used the guards keys to unlock it. After five key the lock clicked, letting him go inside, and he closed the door again. Then he bowed down by the boxes Bryan had told him where were and found the one that was marked. Digging through the ammo, he found his papers and took them up from the box.

He used the remnants of Boris' broken pen, or at least tried to use it, to write on the map. He followed the routes the emerald teen had told him and blotted some letters on the map. He made sure they were understandable on the stained paper before he laid it back in the box and hid it the same way as the emerald teen seemed to have.

Then he got out again and got past the cameras and over to the guard. Then he ran up the stairs as if he had run ever since he had shot the guard. Fast, he got up two levels and ran directly in to two guards and Boris. He lifted the gun in an attempt to shoot Boris to death, but right before he could make the decision, the guard was over him and took the gun away. Furious, Boris took him in the neck with a hard grip and then, they walked down the stairs again.

"You seriously didn't think you could get away, did you?" the purple haired man said as he pushed Kai surprisingly gently into the cell. "I'm getting enough of idiots who think they are able to get out of here. This is the new world, and if you behave, Voltaire might let you get out and see the sky. So act well, little Kai, before I do something I'll regret." The man turned away and strode off with heavy footsteps, the anger still radiating from him.

Kai was on the bed until he heard the emerald come. Then, he sighed, even though he wasn't regretting what he was about to do. It wasn't fair, and he knew it, but he would do everything to have the other one owing him one. So he began speaking.

"I did as you told me. I wrote on the map. But I was unable to find any of your picks. I'm sorry, but you need to give me another favor."

This time, I was right on time ^^ And I have gotten all my inspiration back, so I'm totally motivated right now. I can't remember what I wanted to say else than this, but the prologue of my upcoming story is probably going to be made and uploaded in two or three days or something like that, but it is mostly for myself so I don't forget my ideas xD It's a high school fic (cliché), but I have many ideas no other high school fics seem to have ^^

Anyway, this chapter was absolutely amazing to write. I hope you like it, cause I sure did ^^ and I'm a big fan of chess, I'm not good at it, but I try!

Anyway, enjoy in joy ^^ Someone gonna die soon in the fic ^^


	9. My own side

GOD, I feel stupid -.- But I told you, lazy! Guess who forgot to give the last chapter freaking lines all the way through! Well, if you have read it, you know, and since I'm an idiot to computers, I have no idea how I'm going to change it, DAMN!

Anyway, this is a gooood chapter ^^ Lots of lots are going to happen ^^ It's the chapter my friend has been waiting for CHAPTERS, cause in... I think it must be only two chapters now... I'm going to let her favorite team enter the scene xD Under the name 'the Kukus', as a little joke we are keeping between us (and sorry to anyone that hope for Rei to come back(M.O.D said something like that in one of his reviews), I would NEVER call the whites the Kukus (It's only the member Kevin that is called 'mini-Kuku') xD).

Anyway, I WANT TO GO ON, so I'm not going to warn or disclaim as you already should know or tell you how my oral exams is coming next Monday, Friday and Thursday/Friday yet again (Oh, damn, now I told you anyway xD), so we just go on to the reviews:

GatewaysDiary: Man, you helped me out a lot! Thank you! I owe you! Or something... xD Anyway, as I think I said, I love chess! And it is one of the most complicated games my strategy-loving mind have ever countered, there are so many confusing tactics to keep up with, and that's why it's a game Bryan is TOTALLY fit to think like xD But I'll continue working on the grammar and spelling and all, but I got lazy halfway through checking the chapter (with fatal consequences, as you can see on the lack of lines, damn it I got pissed off when I saw it xD). For the (1)-thing, after you said it, I'm using it in the prologue of my new story and probably will use it forever if I end up being able to keep up with it (I have a memory like a goldfish, sorry xD I forget what I say and think the second I begin to say or think it! But I will keep writing this story, no matter if anyone sees it. It would help me on my motivation and inspiration if more came, but I'm too stubborn to let a story that has come this far without me passing a deadline too much for me to let it slip. That was a confusing sentence... But lastly: I have already found liking in your twin xD His reviews are quite amusing, if not funny, and his way of thinking seems to be one that I would love ^^ And he's a war junky, as he said, I have to love him (I have even considered going in the army at one point, seriously! I don't have the right personality to be in the army, + I love peace and are probably unable to use a weapon on others, but I considered going in!)!

That was it, and I still write a little to much in my review-answers... I think it's good not so many is reviewing or reading this story xD If I should answer ten people... I'll let your mind work with that. And by the way, when Bryan feel 'mental pleasure', it's just a tiny bit of the normal happiness and joy we feel when something goes well ^^

* * *

My own side

* * *

In a cell in the black castle, a teen was sitting with his one hand in front of the airhole in his cell. There he sat for many minutes before the thing he was waiting for finally happened. A slight breeze of wind, not hot, but definitely not freezing. How many months had passed now? He had lost his feeling of days for some time ago, but it had to be... Four or five months. And that was the great thing. A really, really, really good thing.

The teen sat down and took a hand through his far too long, gray hair. It used to be a 5 millimeter military haircut, and it had had the feeling of that until it finally passed two whole centimeters and fell down on his forehead and around his ears. It didn't bother him, of course, it didn't bother him. Why should it bother him? Especially since this day, his plan would be completed.

Bryan sat on the bed a few moments yet, staring out in the darkness. He just had to wait a little longer, then he would move again, and this time, the others were coming with him. His instincts told him it would come in a few seco- There!

All the way down the hall, the fluorescent lamps got turned on with loud 'clicks' as most of them blinked a few times before getting steady. There it was. Good. The emerald jumped off the bed and took out his blade. He could pick up the locks, but when his Bishop had went crazy. With enough strength, a blade could crash the doors, so he took it up and aimed, begging he had enough power. Since he wasn't the most skilled blader, the chances for failure were high, but he focused.

The blade flew out of the lunger and smashed into the door. A loud, metallic ringing, and the blade laid by the floor under the lock of the door. But it didn't stop him, and the others looked at him in the morning with tired, confused eyes as he went over to the blade and took it up. He looked at the door and saw the crack the blade had made. One or two more tries, and it would open.

It took two more, and just as he had lunged it the last time, heavy footsteps were heard. That could only mean one thing. The door sprang open, and Bryan jumped right after it. He heard one of the guards shoot and felt slight pleasure on his chin. That meant the bullet had only barely touched him, and he ran even before he made sure he ran the right direction.

He did, and within seconds, he stood right in front of one of the guards. He got a grip on the man's firearm and took it out to one side so it didn't point at him. Then, he used his free hand to punch the man in the face two times, the kick him in the nuts. The man dropped the gun, but right as it hit the ground, Tala caught it by reaching out of the cell. The redhead turned the gun towards the three guards that was still standing and shot.

Bryan turned to the rest. "Get out and get going." His eyes looked all of them over. Most of them were shocked and staring down at the guards. Most of them was still alive, but unable to stand. Bryan took the gun from the remaining three and shot the one he had beaten through the head, as he was their worst enemy at that moment. It seemed the sound made the others wake up.

"How do we-?" Julia began, but right then, a crash came out from Brooklyn's cell, and the citrinite got out with the black blade spinning in front of him. "Oh, that's how," Julia mumbled, and the rest took out their blades and shot against the door. All of them needed to use two or three tries to get the door opened, very unlike the prodigy.

"What now?" Tala asked when they all had gotten out. Then he sniffed in and cursed in Russian before covering his nose and mouth with his clothes. It wasn't going to help much, but a little was, hopefully, enough for them to escape.** (1)** "Gas."

"What?" the others asked, but followed his movement and covered their noses and mouths.

"Gas," he repeated. "It's a weak kind, but it's still deadly. Boris is going to cook us like freaking Jews!" Ironically, since Tala had Jewish ancestors, but he hadn't known his parents long enough to know. "He doesn't care about his freaking guards!" The panic shot through all their eyes, and Tala knew what he had to do. "Follow Bryan. He knows where we are going." As the only one. Enrique of them was about to argue, but then the redheads voice changed. It sounded exactly like first time they all had seen him in TV or real life. The ruthless leader in Biovolt that was stealing away bit beasts. "We don't have time to talk!" he demanded.

They turned and began to run, most of them not having breathed since Tala's movement. The emerald took the lead and turned the same corner as he had last time, and continued running. He expected his captain to survive on his own. Then he heard the wolfs voice behind him and understood.

"EVERYONE IN THIS HALL, COVER YOUR MOUTH, USE YOUR BLADE AND DESTROY THE LOCK ON THE DOOR! GET OUT AS FAST AS YOU CAN!"

It wasn't normal for him to concentrate so much on others. Most of them was already doomed since they had to open the cell doors, and it would take too much time, but Bryan hadn't even considered giving them a chance. The emerald just continued to run down the stairs. They countered a group of guards that Bryan used the gun to drive away with shots towards their un-armored heads, blood still dripping from his chin. They managed to shoot Julia in the chest, but with help from Hillary, she was able to follow them too. It slowed them down, but the emerald wasn't going to abandon her.

They reached the hall with the four cells with Tyson, Max and Kai in them. The guard in the hall was the same as the one Bryan had beaten up at his last visit, but this time, Bryan had a gun. That meant bad for the guard as the emerald aimed for the head, which seemed like a common thing for both hand-to-hand-combat and when he had a weapon, and was a very evil habit of his. The guard dropped, brain spilling out on the floor.

"Yummy," Hillary mumbled, disgusted and yet honored to be by Bryan's side. She watched him take the keys from the guard's pocket, following the plan though the gas had been an unknown factor. They followed the gray-haired as he scouted over the floor in the hall, looking for his picks. When they weren't there, the emerald began to go through every key in the key ring. There must be about forty.

Behind him, he heard Hillary talk with the two prisoners, and it seemed like he was just remembering them right then. He stopped his search for the right key and looked at the cells, then Brooklyn. "Get them out." Then he went back to the keys right after that, but didn't succeed finding the right one. He heard three doors crash from Brooklyn's attack, but didn't turn before he heard footsteps from afar. He looked up and watched his captain come walking, very green in his face.

"I'm sorry I left you guys," he said, looking even sicker. Nausea and headache was all what the gas had gotten him, which seemed to be good, as he was still standing. He must have begun running shortly after he had yelled out, or he wouldn't have been running ever more.

"You're stupid for apologizing. You were the only one who thought of the right thing," Falak said, attending Julia's wound without having any idea what she was doing. "The rest of us was just thinking about ourselves. You are a hero. Did anyone of the others get out?" But they had had the right to, as they had never been in such a situation before.

Tala just smiled and lifted four fingers, meaning he had saved four people out of... a hundred, may be. Then he turned around and puked in the corner of the room, and Bryan went back to looking for that damned key. Until he heard Tyson speak. "Kai, aren't you coming?" For a short matter of time, he stopped his work, before he went back. If Kai came with the, Kai would be his Queen, his strongest piece... But Bryan had for a long time not believed it would end up being the case, and if it wasn't the case, the Hiwatari was going to be one of Voltaire's strongest pieces. Cause Voltaire was their next opponent if they succeeded over Boris. "What is your reason not to?" A no, then...

The emerald continued listening as he tried the next keys, and when the key finally fit, he got inside and found the map and other papers. On the map, with blurred, blotted letters, was written different rooms. Kitchen in one room, training room in another, Boris' office, camera room, whatever else his Rook had known of.

He could hear Tala had gotten into the argument, and he could hear the wolf get angry. He ignored them and threw the armors on the floor. It all was a little too big, but it was better than end up shot like Julia. Then he got out and watched the argument – or was it even an argument only one side was talking?

"Kai, answer me! What the hell are you thinking? You can't just run off again!" the redhead yelled, his fist clenched hard as he sneered like a dog. It was his way to be angry and let others show it. "Are you enjoying your time with Boris or something like that? Do you like being used by Voltaire? Tell me what the fuck you are doing! Do you enjoy it? Is it the power? That you are going to lead a world? The cell door is open, for Christ sake! What is it that is stopping you?" The rest of them had went silent, but Bryan knew their time was limited, and being the only one that wasn't affected by the tension and Tala's yelling.

"We don't have that much time, so we have to get going," Bryan said. "I need you all to move, and I trust you to do everything I ask you as good as you can. Someone have to go for the kitchen to get food for us!" They all stared at him. It wasn't the time for things like this, not when someone was yelling like that. But it was even less a moment for anything when the guard came, so they nodded, looking away from Tala and Kai, who was now shooting each other death glares. One of them was obviously going to win, but Tala wasn't giving up without a fight!

"I'll go for the kitchen," Falak said, smiling weakly as she left Julia's side. Bryan nodded and looked them all over as Tala began sneering again. It was obvious he was looking for a person to follow her around.

"I'll go with her," Tyson then said, and the serious tone in his voice made Bryan decide he was trustworthy, even if it was a matter of food.

"Take some armor on and find a gun. I'll show you all how to load and unload it. When you go up to the kitchen, take ten or twenty people with you that you free from the cells that can help you carry the food, and get gun to them all, too." They wouldn't be able to offer them armor, but if they wanted out, that was how it was going to be. They weren't Bryan's team yet, so they were allowed to die, and he wouldn't lose anything. The two people nodded and went in to the armory to get the guns. "Then I need someone to get people out of the cells. We need as many as possible, but if someone knows anything about medic, that person stays with Julia. Who's going to get people?"

"What are the people that stays here doing? And what are you and Tala supposed to do in this?" the Italian blond asked while Max already had gotten out and was trying to fix Julia's shoulder, even without any medicine. She was leaning against the wall, and with a mother who had been a scientist, researching the human body, he probably knew a little more about the human body than the rest.

"They are going to help me get as many guns and as much ammo with us out of here," the emotionless answered. "That is the last part of my plan before we are ready to actually get out of here. Are you going?" Enrique nodded, and Brooklyn said he was going to follow the blond, which was very unlike his normal nature. But Bryan trusted the citrinite a lot, may be even more than Tala. His abilities, that is. "The two of you, Tyson and Falak take as many guns you can and give them to the people in the group you are going to free."

"I'm not going to touch any guns or armor," the citrinite suddenly argued. That's what you can call perfect timing.

"Alright." It didn't look like it bothered the emerald at all. He just showed them how to load and unload the guns, and how to secure them so they didn't go off while they had them in the pocket. "Enrique, take twice as many guns with you than you feel like you can have. Belt, sleeves, whatever you think of."

"Why do you let him go against you like that?" Enrique complained, even though he had an armor on and already was taking, loading and putting as many guns on his body he could. He didn't hide the fact he didn't like special treatment, but it wasn't stopping him from doing his job.

"Unlike you others, Brooklyn has been helping me a lot setting up the plan. Without him, I wouldn't have the route to the kitchen," Bryan just said as he began giving out ammo. "And he wouldn't change his mind even if I said so, though that's another side of the argument. You can't win an argument with someone that doesn't care about what you say or think." And yet, Bryan rarely won any fights he had – unless it was with Ian. But the difference between him and the citrinite, was the citrinite's ability to have own opinions, a thing the emerald was lacking quite badly. "Now, the one's that is freeing people from the cells, just go to the nearest floor with cell, which is two levels above us, and begin freeing the people that wants to get free. If some decides to stay, _don't_ bother with them, they are a waste of time. The people that goes to the kitchen, check the map and memorize the road."

They nodded, and all left except for the emerald himself, Max, Hillary and Tala. And Kai, but he was acting very Kai right now. And of course Julia, but she didn't count as she didn't do anything else than groan and whimper. The gray-haired teen asked Hillary to get as many guns and armors in the boxes. She didn't argue, even though she didn't like that she was left alone to do the work.

"You are not going to come with us, I guess," the emerald noted and watched the slate with an emotionless expression. The two of them was ripped out of a second glaring fight, and the slate shrugged, though the answer already had been said. No, he wasn't going to come. That made him be with Boris. And that made him an enemy. He had to find a new Queen, and he already had another one in mind. It would be even easier to convince Kai to get to their side than find the new Queen, but it would be worth it when they found him, and he wouldn't be any trouble.

But there was a third option. As long as it was the one and only Kai Hiwatari, there always was the third option between enemy and friend.

The emerald was just about to speak when they heard footsteps once again, and he turned with his gun ready and took a second to find out if it really was an enemy. Then, he shot the first shot, only to hear them answer first. He heard a weird sound to his left, but he didn't look before he had made sure the enemy weren't able to attack.

When he turned, he saw Tala's horror. The blond Bladebreaker lay on the floor, face down, still breathing, but with a pool of blood pouring out from under him. He hadn't had an armor. The emerald heard Hillary scream, but didn't see Kai flinch when his teammate fell. Hillary kneeled down by the blond and took his head on her lap, not caring she was sitting in his blood. His eyes were closed and his breathing shivering, but he wasn't conscious.

The emerald just watched the two, not really caring of the life they were losing as Max wasn't his 'team' yet. That made his captain sigh and walk over to help the brunette girl, and when his captain did something, he had to help out. The wolf turned the American around so he lay with his face up, and the wound was shown. As soon as the emerald saw the wound, he grabbed the brunette and looked her in the eyes. The panic hid right under the surface as she bravely tried not to show how much she hurt. It was a thing she never really had liked about Kai, and now she was the one doing it.

"Go back to work." Bryan had made his voice gentle, and even if it wasn't his actual feelings. He took his hands on each side of her head and watched her with his normally cold, but now falsely warm, green eyes. He used a finger to wipe the tears from her eyes, and she looked at him wide-eyed. "Go back to work. We cannot help him, and it is only pain he will feel if we keep him alive. We don't have the knowledge or medicine to help him, so we'll kill him off right now, understand?" He had to help her through, or he would lose a member. "The situation will soon be the same with Julia, but she seems to be able to understand it."

The brunette looked him in the eyes for very long, then she closed her eyes in defeat, understanding the hard truth in his words. "Will you hold my hand?" she asked, ready for it to happen right at the moment. He nodded, took the hands away from her head and let her hide her face on his shoulder while their hands were tangled together. The emerald looked the redhead in the eyes, ignoring the wolf's very surprised face as watched the gray-haired teen. A single shot was heard, and the brunette flinched and let out a single sob before she turned from him and went back to her work. But from the corner of her eye, she watched the emerald with something like angst and... obsession.

Before Tala got back to argue with Kai, he had to drag the dead body out of the way. When he turned again, he saw Bryan standing and watching the slate. The redhead decided to try to take care of Julia, now where Max wasn't there.

"So, then it's you and me," the emerald said, and the care he had shown Hillary half a minute ago had left him again. "You can guess me to be less emotional. Are you going to tell me your reasons?" The slate shook his head. He hadn't said a word yet. "Then I'll just ask you one question." They looked at each other, Bryan ignoring the metal sticks that was slightly sticking up from the other's pocket. He opened his mouth to talk. This question was deciding if it was the third option that was in the game.

* * *

It had been heartbreaking. For a moment, all the defenses and barriers he had made in the months in here dropped when he saw the blond fall down on the floor. A long, sickening flow of emotions racked over him, showing on the surface like the top of the iceberg. Then, it had gone again. And the slate watched his teammate laying down and dying, only briefly considering to go over there and help as he knew the others would do so just as good as he was able to.

And the slate was right. Not even letting the others get done with the shooting-game, Hillary got out to the blond and sat by his side. And not long after that, Tala came over to help him, standing in a way that, annoyingly enough, made it impossible for Kai to see how bad his mate was.

Kai hated Tala right now. Not just the normal 'hate' that you said when you hated homework because it was annoying and stopped you from having all the fun you actually wanted to have. No, and Kai wouldn't even call that hate. He hated the redhead with all his heart. They were friends, or he had considered them that at least, but the redhead had just started yelling at him. As if he had done this before.

He hadn't. He simply wasn't going to make sure he got her with him, so they were unable to kill her or punish her. He didn't even know if the likes of her was able to die, but everything could die. Should she be any different?

What he had done before was betraying them. That was true, yes. He had done that. But this time, he wasn't taking Boris' or his grandfather's side. He would only stay for her, and that was a fact. If Tala thought what he did, it was Tala's problem. Boris was a creep that had taken her away from him, and Voltaire was his grandfather, and that was enough reason not to support him.

The slate didn't realize himself how he sounded like he was trying to reassure himself. He watched as Bryan took Hillary away from Tala and Max. He listened to the emotionless's kind whisper. A little too kind for everything to be okay, as it was Bryan speaking, and when he heard the emerald's words, he could feel anger replace his hate to the redhead. How could they decide someone life just like that? Max was a kid who wanted to live, was happy to live, and now, they took that away from him?

But as they were raised the same place, Kai too thought it was the right think to do, as the wound had to be very bad when so much blood already had spilled out from the blond. Logically, it was right. But knowing the blond, he was sure the kid was going to fight, and that meant fight hard to get up and healthy again. Even in these hellish... six months? ... he had seen that kid smile. He and Tyson had laughed together because of the bright way Max was able to look at everything. But they was taking it out of Max's hands!

The slate opened his mouth to speak, but then he realized what he had promised Boris without letting a word pass them. And he knew Boris knew that rule and would know he had talked. They had those damned microphones! That meant he couldn't say a word. Not even a single word that Boris was able to hear...

Before he was able to finish his inner struggle, the shot was heard, and he swallowed hard as he finally realized he had done the wrong thing. He should have talked and stopped them. He looked at Tala's face when the redhead dragged the body away, and saw what he had thought. The demon in the angel's body, as Boris had called it, the ruthless, cold Tala that took over when he concentrated too hard to achieve his goal. That meant he probably normally would have had the same thoughts about killing off the blond as Kai had had, and that he was going to regret it when things had settled and they was out. But not now, cause now, he was very close to love finishing a life.

Then someone got in front of the slate, once again blocking the view. Tala was shadowed by a yellow shirt and furred vest. The violets turned upwards and met with some green stone. They both seemed to give the other an evaluating look before Bryan spoke, Tala walking past him to get to Julia. "So, then it's you and me." Those words said in such an uncaring, unfeeling way felt like a challenge, but even if Bryan was the Blitzkrieg-Boy he was the least around, Kai knew him good enough to know it hadn't been what the other one had meant. So the slate just continued to watch him from his position standing against the wall.

"You can guess me to be less emotional. Are you going to tell me your reasons?" He shook his head, fighting back a snort. Of course not, they weren't as good friends as him and Tala were, and Tala wasn't going to hear anything. Did he think different? But it seemed Bryan had the great overview of the situation. Death didn't scare him off, and as long as the rest did their job right, everything was good to him. How he was able to trust the others in their abilities, Kai couldn't comprehend.

"Then I'll just ask you one question."

Oh, yeah, you just do that, _please_.

The slate watched and waited for a few moments before he received the question. "whose side are you on?" The question surprised him, and he watched the emerald with a raised eyebrow. If he should answer, he had to talk. And talking... was talking...

Then it hit him, and it hit him hard. He had already decided. Though denying it to himself and the other, he had denied the truth. He was going to walk down that path again. He had already decided what he was going to do.

He gave a smirk as he opened his mouth. "My own side." Simple words, but it meant so much. More than any of them could understand, not even he himself. "I have always been on my own side, and I always be on my own side."

The emerald nodded and walked out of sight, and the slate stopped looking to the outside. He just listened, till he was able to hear the pained breathing of the wounded girl and the two that was scrambling inside the armory. He used his ears to see the world, looking like he didn't care at all.

Then, he heard some whispering words, coming out between the painful, harsh breath that was the death melody they all had had as music in the background. "Just - end it - please." It seemed Bryan was right again. The circus-girl was clever enough to ask for death herself, knowing she would just be a pain and feeling she didn't have anymore in life. As far as he had understood, her baby brother had died. And as far as he had understood, that baby brother had been her everything.

The shot wasn't unexpected, as Tala obviously wasn't in the mood to talk her out of it. The wolf really was a demon and one of the worst kinds when he didn't control himself. The slate listened to him dragging the body out of the way, over to the same place he had left Max. Wherever that was. But unexpected for the slate, he heard the wolf gasp, and then the sound of metal landing on the ground.

His curiosity was awakened, and Kai gave up resisting even before beginning, leaning out of the bars as if the door in his cell hadn't been destroyed. He saw the wolf standing very close to a person that had to be a guard, but there was no light, so he couldn't see anymore than that. For a second, he considered helping, but decided it would be wrong, as Bryan already had ran out of the room and was raising his gun. Luckily, Tala was by the guard, or the person would have been dead already.

"Don't shoot." It was a woman's voice, and a voice that they all knew. Katyenka. "I just made him drop his gun. I do not have one myself." The slate couldn't help his smirk. The reason only he knew, and he wasn't going to tell. His smirk dropped again by her next words, and an emotionless mask let in as he watched them, and her next words came. "I want to help you."

"Come closer," the emerald said as he, too, took a few steps. He was watching the other one warily, ready to get shot every moment. Unlike her, he didn't have anyone to keep her from shooting him. But if she had something, Kai was quite sure the redhead would warn them. This might be the reason why the emerald walked his way with such ease, as if nothing was going to harm him or his captain.

Katyenka got out in the light, having the redhead kept tight with both hands. She had been clever enough not to have a hand covering his mouth, as this dog was absolutely sure to have teeth, and Tala seemed relaxed about the situation, even though she had a hand around his neck and had locked his arm in a painful position on his back. But she had neither guns nor armor, which caused Bryan to let the gun drop slightly. Kai watched them get even closer to each other, and Bryan began circling her like a shark, keeping an eye on her every move.

"I'll let you help us," he then finally said, and she let go of the captain. The wolf turned and watched her for a long time with interest more than anger, obviously having cooled down when she had gotten a grip on him. The emerald lifted one of the ear pad-things that was made of metal. "Do you know what these are used for?" the emerald asked as if she hadn't just threatened his captain.

"They block the machine. The one that gives you a headache and kill you, if you are old enough. They block out every sound and every kind of radiation, as they are made of lead and iridium. And that also means they are very heavy, as iridium is the second-heaviest or heaviest metal yet to be found." The guard's face was plain for emotion as she talked, watching them with awareness, as she was more or less in the enemies camp. "I have shut down the cameras too. And fucked up their system, so it should take some time before they get it running again. There is a risk they suspect me, but I'll just have to live through that."

"Good. The rest is supposed to come in not too much time. If you want to help, you do physical work." Katyenka nodded, and they both turned to the armory and went into the room. Seemed Bryan was easy to get trust from... or at least, it looked like that. No one could be certain, since no one knew what was going on in that mind. As they were once again out of sight for the slate, he listened. "Hillary, we are getting the ear pads with us."

"But they are so heavy!" It sounded like she was out of breath, but it didn't seem she had stopped working. The slate had closed his eyes and followed every one of their steps as good as he could. It was a habit of his he had gotten in the abbey, whenever Voltaire or Boris isolated him from the others because he was binding himself too close to someone, and since it could work nearly as good as his eyes watching through the darkness when he listened to another room, it was a habit he had kept.

"We have to, as many we can carry. They are more important than guns, but not as important as ammo. Come on, get moving!" the emerald ordered. For some reason, Hillary didn't bother question the woman that was helping them now. "Do you have a map over the area outside? Either whole France or the mountains we are leaning up towards? And where do they get electricity?"

"So you know we are in France? Well, I can get the map, but I can't get it back here very quickly... The electricity comes from a building a few hundred meters from this one, by the river. The stream turns a great turbine. But that also means the amount of electricity is limited to the power they are able to make from the river." They scrambled with the things, and Kai began to wonder when the rest came back. They had probably been into some harsh battles.

The slate opened the violet orbs and looked into the brilliantly blue eyes of his redheaded friend. He didn't hate the other anymore. Not that he didn't care about him having killed his friend or that he had yelled at him, but it didn't matter in the current situation. Not when the slate was going to do what he was.

"If being on your own side... ever, and I mean ever, makes you stand beside Boris and Voltaire, I will personally be the one to make sure you die, understood?" The redhead wasn't the demon anymore, but that didn't mean his emotions was shown and obvious for the viewer. And Kai wasn't good enough friends with the redhead to make out the feelings, either. Even if the one that stood there, threatening to kill him, was what he had to consider his closest friend.

But Kai just nodded. Good the older teen, despite his young age, already was a murderer. Or it could end up getting pretty damn not good when they met again. They looked each other in the eyes, both trying to figure out the others thoughts, but none was able to understand the other. Emotionless faces and cold eyes was all that met in the air between the two.

Then Kai heard footsteps again, and the redhead turned and raised the gun, only to drop it again. There were many pairs of feet, too many for the number they had had when they had come down here. The slate walked closer to the bars and looked out. The first thing he saw was the Italian blond and the light blue-haired Garland holding an almost-unconscious Brooklyn between them with an arm of the white's over one of each of the two's shoulders. Behind them, a group of teens that was so many that they couldn't even be in the hall stood.

"I think that guy is the best blader I have EVER seen," the Italian said, unbelievably cheerful for his new 'hero' to be hanging lifelessly over his shoulder. Finally, something had managed to dirty those white clothes. Blood was soaking them wet, all the right side. The cause of the blood wasn't visible, but it seemed to be concentrated around his right shoulder. From the armory, Hillary and Bryan came out of the armory. The emerald looked him over, and for a second, the white teen lifted his head with blurred eyes.

"Kai doesn't like knives..." he whispered and looked up at the slate, who answerede his look, quite bemused. Then, the apatite eyes dilated when a new vision came along, and the white teen began to struggle to get free from the two teens. Very like Brooklyn to do unexpected things like that.

"What is it, Brooklyn?" Garland asked, but keeping a tight grip on the teen. And since Garland was a master in material arts and Brooklyn never had touched a fitness-machine, it was obvious who had the upper hand. "What did you see?" Garland was the one that understood the citrinite the most. Or at least had been closest to him. Geniuses and freaks are not to be understood if they are strong enough in their profession, and the citrinite definitely was both of those.

"Don't let him come near me. Let me go! Let go of me!" Brooklyn threw himself backwards with desperation that made the fight harder for the bluenette and blond, while Bryan just walked forward like nothing was happening. For a second, Garland loosened his grip while thinking whether or not he should listen, but they decided to choose Bryan's side instead of Brooklyn's.

A few seconds later, though, he regretted it. As soon as Bryan reached the citrinite, he dug into the bullet wound in the orange-haired's shoulder with his fingers. The critrinite screamed in pain and struggled even harder. Then, the citrinite stopped screaming and used his healthy hand and arm, the one Enrique had had, to hold the emerald's wrist in a crushing embrace. Bryan's hand was no longer in the wound, but it was soaked in the same blood as the citrinite's white clothes.

Brooklyn had an insane look on his face, one that Garland and most of the rest that had been close to Brooklyn in the time after his defeat would remember with horror. Darkness radiated from him, and they could see Zeus glowing from in the pocket of the white, blood soaked pants, showing the anger of its carrier as a silent threat.

Then Brooklyn's gaze dropped to the hand, and then a wide smile replaced insanity. "Thanks."

"Sure," the emerald said emotionlessly, dropping the bullet he had pulled out of the wound to the floor with a loud ringing. Then the gray-haired teen continued in a more emotioned voice, a kind of patronizing one. "That is your punishment for refusing to take on armor. I highly recommend it for the future. I won't like losing you."

"I don't like weapons or pain." Well, they had just seen his fear of one of them, at least.

Beside him, Garland snorted, again supporting the white teen when the one began to drop again from exhaustion and blood loss. "Well, it would be so much more convincing if you hadn't just killed of a couple of hundreds of guards with your beyblade, my friend," the bluenette said, and Brooklyn's smile became a little more wide before he let his face relax, and he let his head drop with a sigh as he went back to a shivering state of half-consciousness.

"I want to hear that story when we have gotten out of here," Bryan said before turning to the people behind the ones that had just been talking. He let Tala get the word, as Tala was going to be the leader of them all, or at least himself. But that was still enough to make him the one that was supposed to talk.

"I want a big group of strong people to come to the front. You have to be able to carry twenty kilo ammo, guns and nutrition. If you can only carry it a limited amount of time that is under two hours, do not sign up for this, as you will slow us down, and it will risk the lives of others." The redhead's voice was demanding, yet friendly, as he used all the skills he had learned in the abbey and in his real life. The people that came forward after a long time with silence was mostly males, with only one or two females. He got closer and examined them, then picked out the strongest of those who claimed to be strong. "Then we'll just wait for the last group to return. Everyone, grab as many guns as you can without slowing you down and load one of them, but do not shoot if you aren't comfortable with the guns. It is only a precaution to if you should get separated from the rest of us. We have people that are good at shooting with us, and you would end up killing each other if you begin shooting!"

Kai had went in to the shadows of his cell when they began to move around outside. He felt really threatened by these people, as they all was against him. And they all had guns. He only had a beyblade. Then, he heard some new footsteps, but this time, he didn't react and show himself, afraid it would end up dangerous for himself.

* * *

It was only under strict supervision they were able to keep it from chaos. This was exactly according to his plan. They were enough to make out a threat when they got outside and enough to make it secure for his team to move around without getting killed when they were still inside. He would get them by his side in the front, cause the front had a higher chance of surviving as long as it wasn't ending in a battle.

The emerald turned when he heard some new footsteps and saw the group that had moved to the kitchen come back. He let the gun drop again while they came closer with their newest members. Boxes with food. Good. And neither Falak nor Tyson had died, though Tyson seemed like he was marked for life. "That girl is a monster with a gun. Why the hell did anyone give her one? I have never been so terrified in my life!"

Well... Yeah, it did look like the Egyptian girl was a little too much in the role of a trained soldier. She even had blood on her body, but it didn't look like it was her own. It was only a good thing in Bryan's head. It meant he might actually have a chance to get some warriors out of this group of scared kiddies.

"We'll go now!" he heard Tala yell, and the group turned to give him attention. The emerald figured out there was about two hundred living escapees in their group. About one hundred had died in the attempt of escape, also counting in the ones in the hall that had been gassed. That meant about another two hundred people hadn't even got the chance to get out, but as far as he had understood, after Brooklyn had gotten shot, the group that was supposed to get the prisoners out had had a hard time getting away from the guards.

He found all his own teammates and got them up to the front of their small army, Garland and Enrique still taking care of the citrinite. That meant one that wasn't his team, Garland, was in the front, but that didn't matter. Also, Katyenka had shown herself and was now the one that lead them. She was the one that knew the building the best, and that set her in that position. And the emerald had had to get a grip on his captain to get him with them, even though the redhead had been the one yelling them to get on. Or else, the redhead would have stayed and looked at the cell with the open door that hid his slate-haired, traitorous friend behind it.

"Lets get on. I can't do anything without you, Tal."

He might not have feelings, but he knew what he had to say to trigger them. The redhead had turned and yelled new orders, taking his normal role and slamming down on everyone that questioned his authority. There were some older than him that believed themselves to be better at the job, and then, there was those like Enrique, that had to question everything that wasn't to their liking. But at least, Enrique was learning. It had to be hard to go from rich to poor.

They began moving, running as fast as they could. Tala kept Katyenka beside him, making her describe the road to the exit, and right behind him was the emerald going through every possible worst scenario he could have to face. The plan had gotten smoothly, even though one from his team had died. It had been better than he thought, as he was forced to split them up and hope for them to do their jobs. They had done it, and he hadn't mistaken the force of any of his pieces. And he wasn't going to let his Bishop die.

He felt someone touching his shoulder and turned, still running, looking in to the brown eyes of a midnight-haired teen. The beybladingchampion was keeping up with them, which was surprising, since Bryan had assumed him to be a quite lazy and not the type to do fitness. "Where... Where is Max and Julia?" It looked like he already had the idea, but he had to be certain. "And... What about Kai?"

"Hiwatari decided to stay here. And since he was your captain once, you know it's a decision that can't be changed. Tate and Fernandez died." Tyson was very close to stop death in the middle of the hall, but since it could cause them problems, Bryan's shot out and got a grip at Tyson's collar pulling him with them. "Many others have died, guards and prisoners. Why should Tate and Fernandez be any different? Tate didn't take on an armor, so it is only helping you guys to understand how important it is."

It took some time before Tyson was well enough to run on his own again, and tried to wipe the tears away without it looking too obvious. The words the emerald had just said was harsh, way too harsh for Tyson to let be. He didn't like it, how the emerald made him feel like he was wrong for feeling sad about the death of a friend. He just shook his head without looking at the Russian. "Sorry I asked." Then, Tyson made sure to fall back in the line and away from the Russian Psycho.

They ran on for some more time before Katyenka stopped. "You know the route?" The redhead nodded. He knew the way to get out now, after she had explained it. The woman smiled. "Good. Then, shoot me." The redhead's eyes widened, then narrowed as he tried to understand. But the other Russian understood the moment she said it, as their minds worked the same way, even if there still was major differences. The emerald took a step forward.

"Begin to run."

The woman smiled and watched him a moment. "Your not as annoying as Maxim claims. But you are just as scary as he says." She let a hand go through his far too long hair, like his mother had done it when he was little, before she turned and ran. He lifted the gun and aimed for a long time this time, yet not long enough for anyone to stop him. The wolf was only beginning to raise his hand when the shots were fired. Two shots, one in her arm, one in her hip. When she fell, she gasped and cried out, and then, she was out.

"Why did you do that?" Garland asked, horrified, but Bryan only shrugged.

"She asked for it, and it was a clever move."

"I thought you knew not everything people ask for is good for them," the wolf said, not knowing if he should try to figure out what had gone through his teammates head or if he should decide the emerald had gone too far this time and figure out a punishment. The emerald shrugged emotionlessly and began moving again, trying to remember the path he had found on the map. The whole group was silent. Then, the wolf decided and ordered them forward.

Bryan had probably just destroyed every chance he had to get respect, but that didn't bother him. Of course, it didn't bother that emotionless bastard.

After a while, when they were so close to the outside Tala was absolutely certain he could breath the fresh air outside the castle. His body was close to its limit, but he fought his panting off and continues until he heard something, and they stopped again. In front of the door, Boris stood with some guards, looking terribly confident.

"I'm disappointed, Bryan. Your plan is sooo simple. Tch." Just the sound of that voice made him shivering and awoken the pain in his stomach, and the emerald looked down, actually showing insecurity by biting his lower lip. Tala, on the other hand, was confident himself, and just froze the man down with his terrible, blue ice pools.

"We are far more than you, and we have your weapons. I'm getting through, and I'm killing you in the process."

"How are your body, Tala?" the purple-haired man asked sweetly. "Maybe I should just tell everyone how weak you are, shouldn't I? I have to admit, you did an amazing job gathering everyone. But do you think they will follow an alpha male that are only able to keep its position by using its unknowing, unfeeling, uncaring, not even human friend?"

"If anyone here aren't human, it's you and me, Boris." Brooklyn had woken from his sleep, and though he was feeling a lot of pain, he had his normal, lazy, plain face. Why he was even bothering with talking, no one could know, but right in front of him, Bryan had curled his hands into fists. "You are-"

The citrinite closed his eyes when Bryan moved, sending out Falborg. In the stadium, he was unable to do what he was about to. Unlike Brooklyn, who was just able to both fighting and playing with his blade, and all the others, who was totally opposite of him, Bryan had been raised with the blade as his weapon. He was unable to play the game like the rest, unable to go from a battle without having at least made one slip-up where he had hurt his opponent. Now, he showed all his might in his poor skills with the beyblades.

The wind rose from nothing to everything, and for about a second, the blowing breezes was hitting everyone, making them all get deep, bloody scratches on their arms and faces. Then, the wind concentrated over the blade, and Bryan raised his hand. It blew the guards to the floor and in to the wall, making them feel all his scary hate that had made his green eyes black with flames. Some of the people in the front was quite sure they saw fingers, even hands and feet, leave their rightful places on the guard's bodies because of the slicing wind.

Only Boris stood still. The wind had avoided him. And the blade had stopped spinning from the stress of the attack.

Behind Bryan, the white teen watched the teen with obvious fear, but that wasn't uncommon for those that was able to see what was happening. Then, the white teen sighed in relief and let himself drop out of consciousness again when the emerald began walking, or might more be running, towards the purple-haired man. Boris raised a gun and aimed, only to realize when he shot that Falborg had destroyed it. The man took it high up in the air to hit Bryan in the face, but Bryan jumped to the side and kicked him in the crotch. He took the man by the neck and shoved him up against the wall between the unconscious and maimed bodies of guards.

They looked each other in the eyes, Boris not showing any fear and Bryan only having his eyes to show him to be driven by hate. Then, the hate turned in to... was it... de... despair that was planted on the boys face? Boris was just about to make that wicked smile of his, believing he had won. But then, the despair disappeared from the face, went in to the green eyes, and that was about the last thing the man remembered from that day.

Cause from one second to another, Bryan got into a insane ravaging mode. He threw Boris' head into the wall, punched him in the face, the stomach, everything that was near. When he lost grip in the man's body so it fell to the floor, he began kicking and stomping on both head and body, while those behind him stared with fear. But Brooklyn's face was still showing relief in its unconscious state. Like an angry bear, Bryan took up the body and slung it into the wall, before he seemed to get just a little more sane and lifted up the man. In the eyes, the hate was back, black flames filling his insides and replacing the pain in his body, and now also his chest. He lifted the man up over his head and threw him down the staircase. "Don't you, EVER, call my superior anything like that!" he growled to his already unconscious victim that was still rolling down the stairs. Then he turned to the rest, his face and eyes plain for emotions again. "The door is right there," he said and pointed at it before he went over and took Falborg up and into his pocket. Then, he turned and was the first to go out the door, no feelings in him or showing on him at all.

* * *

**(1)** Pure physic-wise, it is impossible for them (especially Tala) to survive if gas is used, but let me have my fun!

* * *

I enjoyed the very last part. I have made myself hate Boris even more than I did before, and I think I got my revenge... or something like that. Either way, I enjoyed it. And I am missing one scene in this chapter that I put into the next one. A lot of thing happened, as you have seen, and I hope it wasn't too confusing.

+ this is probably going to be my fave chapter of this story (purely because of the last part, GOD I ENJOYED IT!)

Anyway, enjoy in joy ^^


	10. Voltaire's Pupil

OK, exams are a spawn of hell that I didn't even know of! But... It went well... in the end. Not the last one, I HATE Danish exams, but... Doesn't have much else to say, other than that I'm... Inspired right now. I feel passion, so I have used a lot of energy on Gun Education and such things ^^

Or, oh, yes, I have made a one-shot which has a lot to do with Bound to Change! It's kind of a look into the past of the Blitz-boys and another view on the emotionles, genius, stupid bastard that I just happens to like.

Disclaimer: Nope. Just nope. Really thought so? But, seriously, nope.

Warning: Kill characters, a character-killer, I kinda killed characters in last chapter ^^ Ehm... I have no idea why Max should die... Ehehehe...

Reviews:

My Own Demise: God I love that name. My own demise. That's genius... Well, anyway, so what it's an answer for a review in chapter 8, I can't answer it in chapter 9 anyway! So... YEEES! SHOTGUN DOWN IN THAT SON OF A BITCH'S THROAT! And burning his body with your flames while we're still at it, and he still is alive to feel that pain, HAHAHAHA! So, then it's number 9: Yeah, I know I didn't, so poor revenge, I seriously didn't think I could hate him more, but found out I was wrong when I began this fic. Ugh, I hate him so much! I'm going to keep your suggestion in mind and put it on Bry, so that he can KICK THAT FREAKING SHITTY'S ASS TO DEATH! But I sooo love Tala, really xD He's... cool and demonic, yet he has such good a character and personality. And I do care, as long as you rant about _him_! Or Kai or Rei, as they are my other faves (Kai the biggest, yet I'm SO ANGRY at him right now -.-'). My friend hates Kai right now because of me... Oh well, sad...

GatewaysDiary: Just remembered how I love your name xD Anyway, yeah, a liiittle revenge. I enjoyed it, but, well, Bryan is a freaking, unfeeling bastard, he would be happy if he had just... throw Boris down the stairs to begin with. I couldn't, just freaking COULDN'T, let him only do that, and so I made him lose it instead ^^ And... Yeah, I KNOW, he might not be truly unfeeling anymore, but he would have been happy just throwing him down the stairs anyway! And about the memory, my friends make fun of me -.- "Blah blah blah." "What were we talking about o.O" "Hehehe..." It's annoying, but... fun anyway, gotta love them, ya know! And Tala? Hero? Well... SO TRUE! xD I think all the bad things he have done in the past is eating him up inside, and the only way he can do anything about it is... Yeah, do something about it! Poor little Tala *pads his head* And he's good looking... I'm SO not girlish right now -.-' And sorry about not bringing in the whities, but I promised her to bring in the kukus, and I don't think you will get out of the chapter after this without at least be surprised and then crack a laugh, cause I'm sooo gonna enjoy it xD

By the way, just so everyone knows, a citrine is an orange stone (one of the few, few, _few_ stones that is orange). Just if you wondered why the hell I kept calling Brooklyn that (and I know, I said citrinite before, but I didn't know how it translated, so, my bad xD) ^^

So, on with the story. Or, well, it's nearly Summer now, and I'm having a cold. What's up with that?

* * *

Voltaire's pupil

* * *

The others was leaving. He didn't want to admit it, but in the end, it hurt him that they just gave up about him and continued off without looking back. He had seen the look on Tala's face, of course he had, and the redhead hadn't been happy for doing what he was doing, but that didn't stop him from leaving.

Why it hurt so much, Kai couldn't comprehend. He shouldn't care for them, nor should he care for what they thought about him, and nor should they care for him. And he was the one who had warded them off, the one who had made sure they wouldn't stay, and that was his plan. Now, they wouldn't get hurt because of his search for his lost one. It wasn't fair that they all should stay in hell because of him. They _were_... his friends.

The sound of hundreds of footsteps slowly muted as the slate walked in to the light again. Their attempts to get him with them had been weak, that was what had hurt him. But he also knew that he wouldn't change his mind, and that they knew this. Yet it hurt like shit. It wasn't like he would avenge himself on them, it would be stupid when he had used so much energy on helping Bryan. Even if he had slowed down the emerald's process on purpose.

The sound of footsteps distracted his thoughts, which seemed only to be a positive thing. He turned his head, and the violet eyes narrowed when he saw Boris come running. The slate went back to the shadows of his cell, listening to the man's growling. "Damn it, they have already been here! How was they even able to turn off the cameras?"

Because you have a little traitor on your team, poor, poor Boris.

"They have emptied most of the cells in the four lowest floors, not including this one," a guard informed as Boris came into view for the slate teen. Kai simply stood, leaning against the wall, while the violets pierced into Boris. The man didn't notice. "They have also been to the kitchen and stole most of our food. Though... While the people that tried to stop the ones that freed people from the cells died from some kind of unknown weapon, the ones in the kitchen was simply knocked out." Good one, Brooklyn.

"Damn it," Boris snarled, kicking Kai's open cell door. It closed with a bang before springing open again from the force of the kick, and the sound echoed the hall. "We have to find them! They are armed now. Though I doubt many is capable of shooting, I am not going to cross Tala's path if he is in possession of a machine gun." Boris turned to the guards. "Begin to sear-"

"Boris."

The purple haired man's head snapped to the side, and he looked into the violets of the Hiwatari. It took him a moment to locate the teen in the shadow, but when he did, he made a lot of effort not to grin widely. So one hadn't decided to follow out. And that was good news to sooth Voltaire before telling him the castle had lost most of its prisoners. "Kai," he answered, watching the teen. "So you decided to stay?" What does it look like, asshole? "Well, good. Did you see where they are going?" How good you are showing how much you appreciate me talking to you again, creep.

"Yes, I did." Kai ignored his inner voice that was screaming one single word.

Traitor.

"They went that way." He nodded to show the direction.

Traitor.

"They are about two hundred now, and armed. But they don't have machine guns."

_Traitor_.

"They went to the nearest exit, and they had Katyenka with them."

_**Traitor!**_

Why the hell did he say this? But it was said, and he couldn't change it, so what the hell. They were armed, and might be far more than Boris and his men. By the way, he _wasn't _a traitor. It wasn't like he had ever been on their side in anything! Yes, he had been on the same team as... Well, he had been a Bladebreaker, Blitzkrieg- and Demolitionboy, and he nearly got on the BEGA-team. Sure, he had been on their teams, but... There was a reason why he wasn't set on one team... He just didn't know the reason. But he forced himself to ignore the inner voice.

"That's good, Kai. Thank you. We have had a new cell ready for you whenever you chose to change your mind. Maxim, show him the way, please." Oh, so Boris didn't trust him to stay if he was let out of sight. Else, he would have taken all his force and let Kai wait, so now, Kai was showed to a new place where he could get locked up, now where his own cell had gotten a crashed door. As long as he didn't have to look the others in the eyes, especially Tyson or Tala, he was okay with it. Tala would surely take the nearest gun and go for the head, while Tyson would stare or cry. And he cared, _yes_, they were 'friends'. But he was quite sure Maxim was ready to rip his head off.

With a last look on Kai, Boris went on to catch the escapees before they got to the exit, and the slate was nearly certain they would at least clash together. The bearded Russian guard came to his open door and looked at him like he didn't care at all. As soon as Boris' footsteps were gone, the man to a few steps forward, obviously ready to break the slate's neck.

Kai just glared at the approaching man with _that _look. "If you touch me..." he warned, letting the end of the sentence be shaped in the man's imagination. His whole body was tense and ready for battle. A battle he would lose, as Maxim was a trained soldier and both bigger and a little stronger than him, but he might be lucky and get in a good kick. The bearded soldier looked into his eyes, and when he didn't see any fear, he hesitated. Might not be a good...

Plus Kai was, or at least had been, a friend of the escapees. "I have to touch you if I'm going to move you," Maxim said instead, and the slate rolled his eyes at the man. Sure, that was so much what he had had in mind a little while ago. The soldier shortened the distance a little more and took out his hand, and Kai let him get a grip on his shoulder. The grip was a little to hard, but God knows he deserved punishment for his talking.

They began walking the opposite direction of the one Boris had stalked down on, past the iron-door and up some stairs. Up until now, it was just the same way as the one he normally went when they got to the room where they trained, but after they had followed the normal route a little while, they walked past the door to the training room and continued forward. None of them said a word all the way, until they began walking up some new stairs. Was he being moved from the absolute bottom to the top floor?

"Why did you tell him? You didn't have to, and they might be stopped now because of you. And telling about Katyenka being with them only equals her death." It was obvious Maxim didn't like that idea. But all Kai answered was a shrug and an uncaring look. "They are your friends, right?" Such an accusing tone in his voice. The violet eyes met the eyes of the older one, and he raised an eyebrow.

The slate broke contact with the man again and shrugged. "Two-three of the ones that is still living. Tala Ivanov, Tyson Granger and... Maybe a girl named Hillary. I'm not sure whether or not I see her as my friend, but she's nice enough sometimes." He eyed the man again, and got the answer he had thought. Maxim didn't know Hillary, only the ones in his group. The unprofessional people in the other blocks, those he didn't know anything about.

But the soldier shrugged it of and looked at the teen for a long time. "And you let them die... for what? You sold them to Boris back in your cell, you know."

"I expect Tala to show just how great a leader he can be. If that should go wrong, I expect Bryan to get them out of whatever situation they get into. I know you don't like him, but Bryan is more than capable to get them out of here now that he have gotten that far, and keep them alive until they are capable of surviving themselves. Tyson is to slow to help them there, and Hillary aren't a leader type, so I put my money on Tala and his teammate." The slate still looked like he cared shit about the situation, and he looked the walls over. "You are aware of the cameras, right?"

"Yes, I am. On these floors, there are cameras, but no microphones, so we can talk what we want. Though I'm doubting Bryan..." The teen cut him off.

"Only because you have blocked him out by mental walls, because you are scared to look a boy that has suffered all his life in the eyes, because he is made the machine he is. A successful experiment. You are afraid of him because he is, yeah, scary, and he seems not to care. So what? You block him out and choose to ignore the abilities that actually do make him admirable. Have you ever thought that might be how he is met by everyone that realizes what he is? You are just to narrow-minded to give him a chance." The teen honestly didn't care and only said it to poke the soldier's conscience. "So, how do you know there aren't any microphones?" They walked through the many, shallow halls, still upwards. It had been long since he had seen a cell, and the slate began to wonder where he was staying.

"Because it's up here Boris speaks his mind about Voltaire's plans if they annoy him or where we talks things about Boris without ending up getting killed for it. And here Voltaire stays when he visits and doesn't go all the way down to visit you. Lets call it intuition. And I'm not narrow-minded, sorry I'm not used to speak with human robots. But you shouldn't be talki-"

"You should get used to the robots, now that the power has gotten into the hands of two not so... reliable people. They are probably planning on making Bryan-copies of all the youngest people that doesn't listen." Still, Kai honestly didn't care, but he could see that the other one did. Embarrassment over not looking otherwise on the emerald-eyed teen, fear of meeting other like that teen, uncertainty of whether he should have taken the side of the teens already. Yeah, it was absolutely certain the bearded soldier followed the escapees. "Were you a communist? You were in the Soviet Army, so, were you?" As far as he knew communism, it might be some kind of fuel for the older.

"How did you know about the army?" the man said instead. He was looking suspicious, but the slate shrugged, still not caring. Or at least looking like it. He was sucking information out of the man like a sponge and didn't even feel bad about fucking up the poor man's head. A confused man slipped information more easily than a man that was leading the conversation, and they were easy to get confused if you knew the tools. And Kai did.

"A free guess. So, were you a communist?"

"No. I don't care much about politics, and sure, the communistic thoughts are... good. Nice. But they are to easy to misuse, and it becomes bad in the hands of people like Stalin. But it's all about the people that takes the lead, and it is considerable to see that communists still rule some countries, while Nazism and Fascism is left to minorities." They got up some more stairs, and Kai remembered from the map that there were about ten stories from bottom to top. They was about to reach it now, the top, and Kai really wondered where he was going to be staying.

"You sound like you are very fond of communism, even if you claim you're not," the slate pointed out.

"I'm not, I'm just proud of my country, and the Soviet is one of the newest things in our history. Besides, I'm only alive because Boris remembered me to be a good soldier. I owe him somethi-" A hoarse metallic sound brought their attention down to his walkie, and both Maxim and the slate listened for a moment.

"We have found Katyenka. They shot her. Seems she tried to flee and they shot to stop her. She's in a pretty bad condition, but we can save her. Boris has ordered you to pick her up at ground floor, hall 36 and bring her to the infirmary as soon as the Hiwatari is set in his new cell," a mechanically hoarse voice told them through the machine, and Maxim lifted the walkie from his belt after looking at the slate for a bit.

"Alright, I'll be there soon. Are you going to leave her to go on to the teens?" The male voice in the walkie confirmed this, and the soldier sighed and shook his head before pushing the button again. "I'll be there soon." Then he turned the thing off and stared at the teen he had his hand on. "She went with them voluntarily, didn't she? Anything else would surprise me... Why the hell did they shoot her...?" The last was only for the soldier himself to hear, but that didn't stop Kai from listening. They got to a door, all black, and Maxim took out his keys to open it.

"It might have been her own idea. It would be best if... they had someone they trusted on the inside. Or that would probably be how they thought of it, so they agreed to shoot her." 'They' in that sentence meant Bryan. He new the emerald didn't mind sacrifices, and had probably shot her in a way that wasn't too life threatening. The door opened, and the slate cringed in disgust at the sight that met him. That was his new cell? That wasn't even a cell!

Inside, there was oak planks instead of the blocks of granite, the walls was covered in colorful tapestries of flowers and ancient bit beasts, landscapes, people and animals. Only the ceiling was still showing the black granite. There was a table to eat at, a _big _table, a normal bed, a bookshelf, armchairs, yeah, there was even flowers placed on the dinner table! When Kai thought of the small cell he had been living in for months, this was enormous. There even was a door to some other room. And it was _not _to his liking. Once again, he felt like they were trying to sooth him.

He turned to Maxim with lightning violet eyes. "Show me back to my cell." The anger was radiating from him, and it was so intense he might even be scarier than an angry Voltaire. But the soldier didn't show his fear in any other way than not looking in to the flaming eyes of the teen, just stood tall as he tried to shove the teen inside. With little success, as Kai still was strong.

"This _is _your cell."

"No. This is _bullshit_. Show me back to my cell, and you are doing it right at this moment."

The slate glowered at him, and even not looking in to the burning violets weren't enough to escape the intensity. With another rough movement, the soldier pushed the slate so hard that the teen fell into the room, but even then, even when he had fallen to the floor, the young one didn't break contact. "I'm getting on to Katyenka. Don't get in my way." The door closed with a bang and locked. It had a small window with thin bars, and Kai rose to get over to it and took a hand around one of the bars as he leaned out towards the soldier. Maxim had turned his back to him.

"It _you _or your little female friend get in _my _way, I'll make sure Boris gets to know some of your traitorous thoughts. I don't care about you or your girl, so if prove that you are no threat to me and you wont annoy me, I will let you be." The soldier stopped walking away from the cell and turned towards the lightning violet eyes and looked into them with a mix of disgust, fear and hate.

"I thought better of you, Hiwatari. But seems you want power and control as just as much as your grandfather."

The slate didn't let the violets widen, nor did he show his surprise and hurt until the man was out of sight. Then, the mask fell. He was alone again, and alone meant he didn't need to have his guard up. Or... wait! He looked around, showing his confusion and despair, anger and depression until he found the camera. Then he took Black Dranzer and killed the camera, before dropping down to his new bed and let himself crack open.

But it didn't happen, even though he sat with his face buried in his hands. Even though he tried to take some steam off the pressure he felt, the pressure that felt like it was going to make him explode, it didn't happen. Two sobs was all he got out, and no tears. Not a single one. Why was it like that? Why couldn't he just give in to the feelings and be hurt because he had betrayed his friends and had done every single mistake he had done all his life all over again? He stared down at Black Dranzer, and remembered one mistake he had yet to commit before ending up making them all. He hadn't forgotten _her_ like he had last time. He called the blade back and rose from the bed again.

In front of him, on the opposite wall was a mirror. He hadn't seen it before now, and it showed the unbearable truth of his state. Looking at him was a boy. Not a man, not even a teenager, but a boy. Without his face paint, he was only a child, nothing more. He had lost weight, so much that the clothes he had had on the last many months hung on him like a cloth on a fake ghost, his scarf was spotted gray and black. He looked miserable, and hadn't realized it before now. Of course he had seen the others wilt away, but this was the first time he had seen himself in a mirror for ages.

Slowly, he let his hand reach the bare, pale cheeks. So small. So fragile. Then he turned and looked the whole cell over again, ignoring the door over at the other side. A button and a speaker, exactly something he was looking for.

Fast, the slate moved over and pushed the button. A female voice answered him. "I want all mirrors out of my cell _or_ some blue face paint. If it doesn't happen, I will break the mirror and use one of the pieces to commit suicide, and then my years of bad luck will be set on you. You and I would prefer the paint, since the mirror is to big to take out."

* * *

Fresh air. There was actually fresh air. It caressed their lungs when it came down to them, embraced them with the feeling of kindness and security. There even was sun, it was pale and chilling, and yet warm. And they could hear birds singing, and the wind whistling over the plain, the chilly beams lighting up their pale bodies, but while the majority of the group, even including Tala, stopped to feel the feeling of freedom, Bryan continued.

The emerald was walking, slowly but determined, towards the trees, and when he realized his leader didn't follow, he turned around and walked back to the group. If some of Boris' loyal guards got angry, he wouldn't be surprised if they looked out the door and began shooting like crazy to get rid of the nonbelievers, and that was the reason why they should get away from the open land around the black castle as fast as they could.

"Tala." The redhead opened his eyes and let the deep breathing he had taken seep out slowly before letting his gaze reach Bryan. The gray-haired teen looked at him for a moment, them nodded towards all the other people that was dozing off in the euphoric feeling of nature that streamed over them. "Get them together. We have to go on, or we will just end up as targets for angry shooters." Always calm and collected and hitting right on the mark.

"Yeah, of course." The redhead looked like he just had woken from a dream. Or a nightmare, that is. The wolf had, like the rest of his flock, walked out in the real world again from the hell inside the building. But one member hadn't woken up yet, one member was still in that nightmare, for he had never thought the hell as anything else than the current situation in his life. And now, he still carried it deep in his heart, without revealing anything in his bright, emotionless, green eyes. "Everyone, wake up and follow me. We are in danger out here." 'A leader was what he was born as, the leader we all must follow'.

"I'll make sure we can find back to the castle if we should ever want to make Voltaire pay." There really was something formidable over a man with blood dripping from his knuckles, but Tala ignored this as he gave permission to do that job. It wasn't like physical blood on the emerald's hand would scare the rest off more than the mental blood they knew he had after shooting Katyenka, so the redhead would only bother the emerald by saying he should wash it off. He let his eyes follow his teammate move out to the trees left of the place he was leading the rest, before he concentrated on his task and began shouting orders. It was surprising how well they followed him. No arguments.

The emerald got out in the woods and then turned up towards the river he could hear. He found the bank and looked up, and saw the power-source Katyenka had told him about. An enormous watermill-looking turbine that made them electricity. And it looked like it wouldn't be to hard to destroy, if they had the right amount of power. Which they had, if Brooklyn decided to survive his wound. Else, they were forced to sniff out some explosives.

But if they followed the river, they would be able to find the castle again. He just had to mark the river in some way, so that they could find the river and go up towards the mountain where the castle laid, while Boris wouldn't know where they had ended. He looked up and used the sun as a compass and decided the river went west, down the mountain. The group were going in the same direction, which was good enough.

But how he would mark it was still a problem. He looked down at Falborg, the blade he still had in his hands, and got an idea. He was able to make the wind blow strong for over ten miles... If he exhausted himself a little bit. But it should cause enough destruction for them to be able to find it again. They wouldn't get more than... about seven miles away from the castle before they made a permanent camp. They might... or would probably travel even longer in time, but for the time being, it would be enough for them... On foot, many of the people wouldn't want to go long.

Bryan took out his blade and closed his eyes, building up all the energy he could bear. Slowly breathing in, then out, feeling his blade do the same. He hated that blade. It was always in the way, it was the reason he had ended up like this. He hated the bit beast too, but that wasn't fair. It didn't stop him from hating it... Another breath. The black flames drove away the new monsters that roamed in his body. The monster had gotten even more now, but the black flames were still stronger. Another breath.

Then he opened his hateful, green eyes, his whole body tense to the point where the muscles were aching and felt like they were burning. It was pleasureful... yet _nearly _pain. He lifted his hand, gritted his teeth as he strained his body even more and then, let the hand fall. The wind the bit beast had raised washed over the riverbank, throwing a few trees over as it slowly disappeared. The destruction could be followed all the way down the mountain from where he stood, but it was nearly soundless. And when the wind had blown itself weaker, he would still be able to recognize the scratches the wind would cut deeply into rocks and trees.

The first, short distance that was in sight, he threw over some trees, as already written. The next many, many miles, the trees would be scratched and the rocks splitted, maybe an unlucky animal would get unjured, but the damage was minor. Only he, and maybe his teammates and Boris, would be able to find the cuts from Falborgs wings.

The emerald let his knees give in as his body gave up trying to stand. Ugh, this was why he hated that blade and the reason he didn't like blading. He couldn't control the strain an attack like that made on his body, and the only way he could win in the game was beating up strong opponents because he was incapable of just attacking normally. In front of him, Falborg continued to spin, mocking him without receiving any reaction. He forced his body to move again and picked up the blade before he turned and walked into the trees again.

Bryan reached the group a few minutes later, not showing his fatigue as he got up beside Tala. The wolf had fallen back with some teens that was able to hunt to hide their tracks as good as they were able to, while the rest of the group continued forward. It all was on Tala's orders, and everyone was still to confused to argue about who was going to be the leader. And since Kai wasn't with them, Tala was the strongest person who had both leadership and could keep his head and think of the right decisions.

"I have done what I had to do," Bryan informed, his face not revealing any exhaustion. The redhead nodded, satisfied with those words. When time came, he would be filled in on the details. Now, the only thing he should think about was getting everyone to a safe location and let Bryan do the thinking that Bryan did best.

"Tell me later. Go to the front and take the lead, so we can set up a camp for tonight on a good location." The blue eyes sought the group through and his eyes stopped for a second by Brooklyn, who was still heavily leaned towards Garland with the rest of the surviving BEGA-team nearby them. He seemed to be the only badly wounded person that had gotten out of the castle. Notable, as Bryan had shown him to be one of his most important pieces. Very notable. "Would you mind making sure Brooklyn get the bleeding stopped on your way to the front?"

An amused smile crossed his face. Not because he was amused by the last comment, but because he knew he should have been. Then he nodded, emerald eyes meeting icy, blue pools, and Tala let himself crack a smile before going back to his normal, half-frowning expression. The emerald turned, and as he did, the wolf let his eyes go over his teammate once again. Yeah. Very notable indeed.

Bryan, on the other hand, didn't let go of his amused smile as he zigzagged his way over to the BEGA-team, getting past quite a lot of people he knew. Only the professional, world-class bladers didn't eye him with concern, and even in that shallow group, some of them _did _do so after he had shot the guard and beaten up Boris. Not that it concerned him at all. He didn't care, as long as he got his job done. Though he didn't know why he had reacted like that towards Boris...

"Has the bleeding stopped?" The conscious part of the BEGA-team, which meant Garland, Mystel and Ming-Ming, looked up at him, the girl not even trying to hide her fear. The white teen still leaned towards Garland's shoulder, though Enrique had left them after they got outside to catch up with the people he knew and were friends with, which meant Mystel had taken his place.

"Yes, I think so," the blond answered, given their strongest member a concerned look. As far as Bryan knew, Mystel had about the same attitude as Brooklyn, but more fighting-spirit. This meant he couldn't be certain if the words were true, as the citrine easily would have agreed to something only halfway done if it meant he didn't have to work so hard. So Bryan decided to take a look himself, just to be sure.

"Lay him down on the ground a minute."

"But the others are still movi-"

"Lay him down," Garland cut of the blond, and Mystel just nodded. Gently, Brooklyn was wired down to the forest floor, his face as peaceful as you might have guessed. He looked like nothing was wrong at all, his pale face and citrine hair glowing with the light his bit beast contrasted, the sun lighting him like an angel through the skeleton-trees. If you did not know him, he really would be able to fool you into believing his as pure as that.

Bryan took off his white shirt to find the bullet wound, and the BEGA-team was surprised to find their member very skinny, until they realized they themselves looked even worse. Not as in they were skinnier, but they were covered in dirt and dust while he had managed to keep himself clean – God knows how. The emerald looked up and narrowed his eyes as he scouted through the crowd. "Enrique!" The blond turned his head away from the girls he had gathered and looked at the gray-haired, and then came over to the group around Brooklyn. "Give me your shirt." The emerald took off his vest and threw it towards the rich boy. "Take that instead."

The blond looked like he was about to argue and oppose the orders, but decided to go on a compromise with his senses and argued _while_ he took off his shirt. "Why the hell is it me you decide to buck with this? Why not anyone else? The rest of the people have clothes you could borrow too! And why don't I get your shirt instead?"

Bryan just took the shirt, sat down and began to tear it apart in strips. "You are one of the cleanest people in the group that I know the name of. And you wouldn't like the smell of my shirt, so you get my vest instead." The BEGA's suppressed their giggling as Enrique watched his shirt being torn apart with awe. It was first when he wrapped it around the citrine's injured shoulder that they realized he was using it for bandages. He got done with bandaging the white teen, and after giving the citrine his shirt on again he looked up at the group. "Get on."

He himself just left them, even though they had fallen so far behind now that they were bothering Tala and the rest of the people that tried to hide their trail. Fast, they took the white teen over their shoulders again, but Bryan didn't look back and just continued to the front, where he ended, as Tala ordered, leading their way.

The day went to red as the sun lowered, and the emerald finally stopped and looked back towards the people he was leading. And he wasn't quite the Moses, didn't encourage them with promises or words, but let them to their own thoughts, exhausted, afraid and slowly making more distance between themselves and him as a side effect of their tiredness. Lets just say there was a reason for him not to be leading them, though _he_ was the one to get them out of their shithole-cells. "We'll be here for tonight," he announced. The floor was soft and there was a lot of material to their camp. In the beginning, it was going to be cavemen-style, though they had their guns.

Tala got to the front again to stand beside Bryan when he heard the emerald's words, and he saw quite a lot people smile when they saw him. They were beginning to rely on him, and they were beginning to do it to much. So he began speaking, his voice loud enough for everyone to hear.

"I know you are exhausted. I know you are tired. And I know you feel like the world is sitting on your shoulders and threatening to break your back. You have the _right _to feel like that!" he started his speech, and he felt himself getting warmed up. He didn't like speaking like this, but when you were leading a bigger group you had to encourage in other ways than personal conversations. With a hundred or two hundred people, for every person you have talked happy, another person would have committed suicide before you got to reach them. So he had to do this. "But you must remember..." Theatrical break. "... That every man by your side feels the exact same. We are in this _together_, and only _together_, we will be able to lift the weight of the world from our own shoulders! Only _together _are we able to survive in here! So all I ask you is to reach out your hand for help while taking the hand offered to you. You can't survive on your own, and by trying, you will be risking the lives of the faces you see in _this _group!

We'll be divided into smaller groups, each group have a different purpose. One group of about seventy people will make shelter by every camp we get to. They begin as soon as we stops for the day. If you can tie a knot or have experience and talent in making and building things, this is _your _group! But remember, if you choose this group to lay down and let others do your work, you don't just harm _yourself_, but also the rest!

Another group takes care of gathering food and water and cooking, a group of about sixty people. Berries and other fruits and vegetables are everywhere in the forest, but for the beginning, just use the food we took. You will be making food over open fire, but _no one _complains about burned food until this group have gotten the chance of getting the hang on this! If you are good at either finding ingredients in the wild or cooking, _this_ is _the group_ for _you_!

We also need a group of about thirty people for hunting. The hunters must be able and good at using guns. In the beginning, the hunters will use guns, but as soon as they have learned to use other weapons, mostly bows and arrows, they will use them. We have to save as much of our ammo as we can. This group is going to provide meat, but meat is not going to be the food source we'll get most of, since hunting from the birth man has been unstable in success. On the other hand, the people in this group will also be teachers! We all have to learn how to protect ourselves and fight. Whether or not we will take Boris and Voltaire on, I will leave to you, but you _must_ be able to use at least the guns, if not other weapons, too! We may not waste our limited ammo.

The last group will be about forty people. You make our material, when the hunters have hunted, you will skin the dead animals, you will make bows and arrows and other weapons together with the hunters, you will make spoons and bowls for the food out of wood, you will make pot and pan of flint until we reach a city and take some of the fabricated pots and pan. If you are good at carving or using a knife, this is the group _you _belong to!

There are positive and negative sides of all groups, but I want you to see past this and use the group that is most fit for you. I would like boys and girls to divide themselves as equally as they can into each group, since females can be just as good at shooting and carving as males, and the opposite way around too.

Lastly, before I let _you_ form your own groups, I will not be our leader unless I am chosen to. I despite dictators, and that would be what I am if I don't let you choose. My suggestion is that we have a leader from each of the working-group to decide our next move and make decisions. Then, everyone gets a fair chance of being a part of this! Now, take your time to think how you would best help to lift the world from our shoulders and chose your group! If it doesn't go well, I'm going to put the groups together, and I don't want to hear a _single_ argument." Tala turned to disappear, so he could get to sit down. He could see fire in the eyes of many of his listeners, and he wasn't surprised. He was a good speaker. The speech had tired him out, but then, he heard the first one to question him.

"Hey! Tala! You were from the Blitzkrieg-Boys, weren't you? Aren't you supposed to be, you know, evil?" It was as he had feared, and they had every right to think of him as the enemy. He _had _done... bad things. Before. And for a long time, he had only waited for someone else to try and take his position as leader, even if he had made a suggestion to an alternative. It would be so much better for some if they just got full leadership, instead of sharing it.

The redhead closed his eyes and turned, Bryan moving closer to him as support. The other one their team would be far better support, but Tala only had Bryan, and that made the emerald act it as good as he could. His superior needed him. "Evil is a wide term. But yes, we were Boris'... henchmen a few years back. I wouldn't call us evil for that." Tala stared his opponent down, showing his teeth slightly, like the alpha that had met one, who tried to pull him away from his leadership. It was a girl, about his age and with pitch black hair and brown eyes. And a determined look.

"So you wouldn't call yourselves evil, even though you were the henchmen of a person that has locked us up for months and forced us to train to become his soldiers? Would you mind telling me what is wrong with that picture? Hn?" If Tala had had fur, he would surely look like a hedgehog right now. The emerald looked from the girl to his captain, and seeing his captain's pain, he began to wonder. Should he kill the girl?

"The only thing wrong with the picture is you, not realizing the exactly same happened to us a few years back. I can tell you that what you might have felt like hard training for you looks like nothing other than a vacation for the two of us! And if I was his henchman still, and if I was evil, as you so kindly called me, why did he decide to have me whipped the first day I was there? I have both proof on my back and witnesses in this group!"

"That doesn't explain why you were with him years ago! If it was so much harder, then why should you have taken his side in the first place? Can you answer that?" She had quieted down a bit, probably knowing she wouldn't be seen as a good leader if she only tried to scream his head off. But her words made Bryan decide. Yes. He should absolutely kill that girl. She wasn't his superior, and she threatened his superior. _Exterminate_.

"It's in the past, and I don't want to tell you." The wolf gaze nearly grew icicles on her ears and nose. People looked confused from one to the other. Tala had been the one in the lead until now, but... It was truth that he might not be trustworthy in the end. He had history with Boris, and he was known to be ruthless and violent. And he was, apparently, hiding something. While this, Bryan had turned around, took his gun and silently loaded it. _Exterminating_.

"The past is the past. Why don't you just tell? I'm sure we all want an explanation." Her eyes narrowed. She knew she had hit a weak spot, though she did not know how bad this weak spot really was. But right at that second, she had went to far. Bryan turned around, took a second to aim and then...

"NO, Bryan, damn it!"

BANG!

She was lucky. The bullet hit the ground, the wolf's hand on the emerald's arm, guiding the gun towards the forest floor with everything else than friendliness. Bryan watched Tala, Tala watched Bryan, and then, the gun was ripped out of the emotionless's hand. "I order you not to kill any of these people, no matter what they say about me, you or the past, понять?" he spat, clenching the gun, and the girl's eyes widened in realization.

"Orders taken, captain," Bryan said, his emotionless eyes set on the girl again.

"He tried to kill me!" she yelled and turned around towards the rest.

"And I stopped him. If you are so persistent, I will give you the frame so you all can make a little picture of how the past looks. I don't remember anything about parents. I was taken to a place, popularly known 'The Abbey', when I was four. The same with Bryan, while my teammates, Spencer and Ian, was taken as three-year-olds. In that place, they made experiments on humans, which means children, which means us. In the abbey, two kids was shaped into leaders, the ones who should order the rest around. Everyone else was shaped into soldiers, about half of them without a mind of their own. Though one was made into a 'machine'. It is said humans can't erase their feelings, but this one proved everyone wrong. Boris was the leader of this place."

Tala's eyes was cold, hiding the pain from them. He was furious, furious at the people daring to touch that topic, furious at the girl for trying to defy him, and furious at Bryan because he did exactly what he had been trained to do. Try to please his superior. "Do _not_ talk to me or him about the past. _**You might get an answer**_. Everyone, think of which groups you want to be in and _do your job __**now**_." The wolf turned around and began to walk away, forcing his tears back. Bryan reached out and took his wrist, and the wolf reacted by slapping his face. "_Don't _go near me right now. I'm mad at you. Can't you at least _try_ to make them like you?"

Bryan stood for a second, not knowing what he was supposed to do. Then he looked the group over, and they were staring at him with fear and after Tala with sadness. He was upset, and that only made them more sure of the truth in his words. But the emerald could show them how to make a shelter of branches and such things...

An unknown, surprising factor suddenly shown. A girl came towards him, Hillary made her way to him. She looked down. "You still have blood on your hand. I know where there is a river. You can't show them anything if you scare them because you don't have clean hands." She took his arm, and while he went back to his normal problem, was she superior or inferior?, she lead him towards the river. Cause he actually still had Boris' blood on his hands.

* * *

The door lead to a bathroom. And that was where Kai used most of his time, since it was big and there were no cameras. They had replaced the one he had destroyed, which was quite annoying, since he felt just the slightest bit of paranoia, and now, when he actually had a bed he could sit on without feeling pain in his back, he had a chance to flee from that awful, staring lens. Luxury showed to be a pain.

But, well, at least the toilet was nice too. It had tiles like a regular, normal toilet, but it was still nicer, in yellow, red and orange colors between the white tiles, set in patterns. This made him feel... quite a lot like the cell did, like puking and nausea. He would, in many ways, prefer his old cell. It was wrong to accept this, but he was not the one to decide.

In the toilet, he slept, ate and read the books from his new bookshelf, only coming out when the guards took him out to train in the training room with the prisoners that still was in the building. There was only Emily and Miguel left of the professional bladers. The rest was out. Or dead. That made them three, where Emily was the best opponent for him and none of them even was able to beat him. Brooklyn had left right when he had begun to be able to beat him every third try! _That _was an exciting battle!

Boris had showed up once since they had put him in here, two days after the escape as far as Kai could guess. That had been fun, since he had had one arm in a sling (it had broken five different places), seven of his fingers in all was broken, the nose was smacked out of place, a couple of his ribs had be bent or broken, well, nearly everything was broken. Bryan had forgotten the legs, and the back had gotten away with only a little... lot... bruising, so the man was able to walk. But the funniest thing had been to what the black eyes, wounded lips, the great amount of broken teeth in his mouth and the bruising all over his face.

At first, the slate had been surprised. Who wouldn't when your captor showed up all beat up with his arm in a sling and a face so black and blue, that you were lucky to find at least one little spot with normal color. Though Boris was still alive, the emerald had done his job. The purple-haired couldn't even walk without grunting, limping and wincing.

Even though Kai was going to cooperate, and even though he was on their side, he was highly amused by this. But back to the actual reason for Boris' visit, cause it bothered the slate quite a lot.

Voltaire was on his way.

That was what the purple-haired had told him. It was supposed to be today he came, and though he should know his grandfather _had _realized they were on the same side, the man still managed to terrify him.

The slate forced himself to concentrate on his book, sitting beside against the wall beside the toilet and on the opposite side of the door. It was his normal place to sit, yes, he had a normal place, but it only was because a guard came in every day to clean the toilet, which was better than the one he had had in the other cell. It hadn't been cleaned even once, but you got used to the stench in time.

But he had a shower! It might not seem as an important thing, but... When you hadn't got showers regularly for a long time, it is like a dream. That was at least one positive thing about not going with them, and in these past few days, he had taken a bath every morning and evening. It didn't make him feel cleaner, he knew he was rotten all the way through, but at least the outside felt a little better. And they had extra clothes in the same style as his old, what a _weird_ coincidence, and the slate had washed the scarf in the sink with some normal hand soap. So it was white again now.

The book that had drawn his attention was called 'The Dead Father', and the reason for him to choose that book... was kind of obvious. Up until now, he had found it confusing, annoying and absolutely not funny, but he had an idea why. It was set up to be resembling to your own relationship with a father, and... Well, just leave. He didn't want to think of that... idiot. He didn't want to remember him, didn't want to remember the hurt it had caused him.

He just continued reading his book without caring. It's cover claimed it to be good, but he didn't feel the book at all. A knock on the door, and he looked up to see his grandfather's huge figure. "I wonder what my grandson are doing reading in the bathroom." Sarcastic as always, Voltaire took a step inside. He was a huge man, but not in the fat way.

It was simply his built that made him broad, and he just had the look of a normal, hardworking, exercising adult. "Oh, 'The Dead Father'. Interesting choice of book. Personally, I don't think much of it, but most people find it very good."

"Cameras have a weird effect of giving you some kind of paranoia," the slate answered, just as sarcastic as the older man. None of them even cracked a smile at the weird exchanging of words, which gave them a look of inhumanity, and Kai thought it fit greatly for both of them. "And for the book, it has a very interesting name, but the inside is very unsatisfying." They watched each other for a long while, and a smile found it's way to the older man's face.

"I had forgotten how nice your voice is. You have been silent for months, boy, many monks and nuns have crumbled in that kind of punishment. But don't be so formal. Dinner is set on the table outside, so leave that damned book in here and come out of this disgusting room." Memories of earlier dinners with Voltaire flashed through the slate's mind as he rose up from the floor. It was not good memories, but he was in no position to say no. He had handed over his body, and though his mind still resisted somewhere in the deepest, forgotten places, he would follow all their orders.

The dinner was just as fine as it had been the last few days, steak, a lot of green stuff, potatoes, even sauce. He was quite sure he would begin to regain his weight, but didn't fear end up getting fat. He trained too hard in the training room to end up like that, though he could train harder... But the food was another thing he didn't like about this. Even in the other cell, he had gotten slightly better food. Now he got a whole meal, while the prisoners in the cells below got some of that sticky, disgusting porridge. But he didn't complain out loud. Voltaire knew already, that Kai was sure of. And his grandfather didn't care at all, that his grandson was uncomfortable with the food.

They sat down by the table, just like they used to when they ate in Voltaire's mansion. It was a different table, it was shorter and not as luxurious, but the atmosphere around the table was exactly the same. Kai ate in silence, his eyes closed, knowing Voltaire would do the talking if talking was meant to be. But when they were left in silence a little to long, the slate opened his eyes. The older man watched him with a lazy look, but the others eyes still made the teen tense. He had to distract him, or he would end up running back to his toilet to get away from the intense, lazy stare.

"I thought Boris was going to be here." It was probably the first time Kai was the one to start a conversation, but it had the effect it should have. The old man blink, and the feeling of paranoia disappeared again. It seemed that feeling was going to be his companion for his time here, and if everything went badly, his time here was the rest of his life.

Voltaire looked like he did not know if his should be amused or angry as he opened his eyes again, but he chose not to show any feeling as he answered. "He decided to stay away to lick his wounds. And he had claimed he was the one to know those two problems the best." Sarcasm and irony was going to be their companion in this conversation, it seemed. Was it a Hiwatari-trait? Maybe. "Even I knew Bryan was going to come up with something, and it is only natural Tala would be able to gather people and get them out. Boris has gotten his punishment for underestimating them. Sadly, he won't get any permanent injuries to remind him of being cautious."

"Fantastic," Kai mumbled, going back to his food. He closed his eyes again. That was that topic, and the next got picked up by his grandfather, as the dinner traditions required. And yet, the man let his grandson wait a long time before revealing his next words, and Kai was close to feel uncomfortable again. But this time, he didn't open his eyes.

"You still haven't giving up all resistance, Kai." Yeah, state the obvious. "Just like you haven't stopped resisting Black Dranzer." I prefer my beautiful, female phoenix, yes, are you surprised? _She_ is more reliable than any family I have ever had. "Stop resisting." Why? "Why, you think? Well..." Uh, creepy, you read my thoughts... "I am offering you more than anyone else could ever dream of. You can rule a world, Kai, and you prefer hiding in a bathroom?" Ouch, that _did_ actually hurt. "I have every person in the world in my custody, except your redheaded friends and his likes, and I can shape the new society after my will. And I am going to do so, when the new generation, the people aged 2-12 has grown up. The problem is that I am 60 and might not live long enough to do so. You, on the other hand..."

"I don't like your ideas, Voltaire. You do not respect humans." The slate opened his violet eyes and watched his grandfather. "What do I get out of it? I am not interested in ruling the world." There, he lied, and they both knew it. Besides, it was quite egocentric to talk about his own profit in this matter, but he pushed it aside, choosing to go back to that subject now. "Your plan is to make the world follow you to comfort you. You are centered around yourself, don't care how the people around you feel. That is not my way." Their eyes met, and locked, staring each other down with the same kind of intensity. Hiwatari against Hiwatari is an endless battle.

"There is no other way to rule, Kai. You want the power. You are a true Hiwatari after all. If it wasn't because my son is a spineless brat, I would have used him instead, but he is, so I concentrate on the member of my family that actually has some courage. But enough of this. We'll only end up insulting each other, and that is not in my interest. Instead, lets eat." It wasn't like Voltaire to leave something like that, and Kai immediately got suspicious.

"I'm going to follow your orders, Voltaire."

"Oh, I know, Kai. You are to honorable to leave that promise, though you never said it out loud. But when you are going to follow me, and not just my orders, I will let you come with me to my castle in Florida, where I have _control _over the rest of the world's teenagers." Well, aren't there a little hint to Boris? Maybe his punishment actually weren't bad enough for the old man, despite his words. "Of course, you will be my right hand there, not a prisoner." Voltaire continued to eat, and the slate decided to leave it, afraid the answer to his question might scare him. Then silence ruled the table until Voltaire finished, and though Kai had closed his eyes, he knew the old man had gotten back to watching him.

When the teen finally let his cutlery drop, Voltaire rose from the chair. He motioned to the slate, who just watched his grandfather at first, before getting up. It was quite annoying that he had to look up when looking at the old, terrifying man. "I would like you to show me your beybladingskills." The slate just raised an eyebrow, his suspicion growing worse. What was the man up to? But Voltaire just nodded toward the beydish in the room. "Come on, Kai."

The slate sighed and took a step towards the dish and launched the black blade. Voltaire watched without enthusiasm, and Kai sped up. Though hating the man... he had to satisfy him. He had lived to long for the man to not wanting him to smile at his skills. "I didn't know my grandson was such a weakling." Fired began burning inside him, and he did _it _before thinking it through. The feeling of power, the feeling of flying over everyone else, feeling of superiority... It all mixed together when the black phoenix rose from his blade in his attempt of pleasing his grandfather. It surrounded him, and he... Couldn't help loving it. He _was_ a Hiwatari, as Voltaire had pointed out. Power was that family's fuel.

Blank Dranzer rose from the blade with the black wings spread out gracefully and the head held proud. The bitbeast turned its head towards the young man standing on the edge of the stadium, screeched as he hesitated a second before diving towards him and embrace him with the black, comforting wings. All his doubt, his guilt and everything troubling his mind disappeared as the bitbeast and the master finally was one again. No one else could satisfy this enormous, dark power than this one, single boy.

And then, the youngest Hiwatari on Earth finally gave in to his grandfather's wishes. How could he say no to power? Black Dranzer was the best persuader the old man had ever found, and a smile did crack his ever frowning face.

But Kai had done the only mistake he had been missing. Black Dranzer got control, and that meant he left _her_.

* * *

Okay, yeah, I really am angry at Kai right now... So...

And if you think Tala said some things in the argument he never would have said, you are absolutely right ^^ But he got angry... Or, no, he got furious. And when I am angry, really, _really_ furious, I say A LOT of things I actually don't want to say, that shouldn't be told to those people. So, the same thing happened to him, and yes, he is going to regret it when he calms down again.

Another thing, yes, Tala is a good blahblahblah (I don't remember the freaking word! It's something you call a man/woman who is able to speak with enthusiasm, one who is good at making speeches). And he's a good one of these thingies, with abilities as good as Hitler (well, he freaking DID get a whole country more or less into his ideas), Dr. King Jr. and a bunch of other wellknown people. Think Obama is in that group too, but I haven't seen many of his speeches... I might be.

That was all I have for now. Enjoy in joy ^^


	11. Fighting Dog

I have vacation! I'm so happy! And I'm going to a fitness center every second day ^^ I'm happy for that too, I love to run and exercise. But, I want to write on. Though I have a... reguest. **Tell me if I'm getting predictable! **Thanks ^^

Disclaimer: Don't own. Have never owned. Want to own, but it's god damn impossible for me!

Warning: I kill characters. I have told ya already, but now, I'll tell ya again ^^ I'm loving to kill them and make them suffer! MUAHAHAHAHHAHAA!*doing laughing none-Tala-style*

Oh, I actually have one other thing xD I'm getting an obsession with Bryan because of this story. Can your believe it? XD Of course not as big as my Gaara, but still. He's the last one I would think I would! I didn't even really like him when I began this, but now, I can only think of stories where he is in and such things. Of course, my Gaara is still mine(!NO-ONE TOUCH!I HAVE KILLERINSTINCTS!), but Bryan I'm willing to share xD

Ugh, just realized I only have nine free prof-bladers o.O And there is how many in all? Wow!

Reviews:

GatewaysDiary: No, I bring the Kukus into the story in this, and you can't miss them, cause I had so much fun writing this chapter xD I have used up all my humor for this story in a third of this chapter, and it is kinda... ehehe, I have a very bad sense of humor. Anyway, yes, it is one way of fixing things when people are annoying. Why not just shoot them? I just thought it was the most natural thing for Bryan to think, as Boris only would have felt Bryan shooting an annoying underling would be showing off his powers to this group of people that might actually think for themselves! But absolutely yes, Tala can talk himself out of everything (and into everything, but we keep quiet about that, right?) ^^ I have the image of our redhead as the youngest president of Russia, hehehe. And for the nekos, I'll have you read this chapter in stead of telling you ^^

MyOwnDemise: As long as it is the right people you kill, and the right things/people you rant about, I will _love_ to read your words. And the dinner, it was fun writing, but also a little hard because I was using up all my space. I was at the end of my eighth page when I began writing the scene, and I will only use up to ten pages on a chapter, soo... I was in trouble xD But good you don't have an evil family like the Hiwatari, if anyone had I would feel very bad for them! And for Bryan, that is just the way he thinks ^^ Or is... Though I could imagine the scene with you and Gateway, though xD And I could do that scene solo, cause though I'm not suffering under a splitpersonality, I have a side called Satan and a side called Jesus in my head, and those two is... a little too good at arguing with each other ^^ Anyway, seems we all are weird in here xD So I'll just continue now ^^

That was what I was saying today ^^ Or, something. I'm going on to the story now!

* * *

Fighting Dog

* * *

It had only taken Tala half an hour to come back from his outburst, but when he did, his mood was even better than it had been before. As soon as he had found out his temporary position as a leader hadn't been damaged, he let himself smile. Bryan recognized the carefree captain, the one who had hidden himself the moment he realized he was locked up like he had been in the Abbey.

Now, three days after their escape and Tala's furious growling, the redheaded captain had gotten to speak with the most and a few people that was having a chance to get in the category 'friends' was even able to make him laugh. That was a thing that normally was reserved for the midget, as the youngest member of the had the brightest mood – as long as Bryan wasn't near.

It confused the people that 'knew' him, the professional bladers. They had only seen his competitive side, which was exactly the ruthless one he had been until they had gotten out and safe. The emerald watched their confusion without real interest at the same moment he was watching his captain.

It had been a nice surprise when they had encountered a small village already on their second morning out of their trip. They had made shelter out of the big branches in a style Tala and Bryan had learned in the Abbey, and the food they had eaten had been the food they had with them from the castle, cold since the group for the materials was working slow on the kitchen tools. Oh, yeah, by the way, the groups had settled themselves miraculously good and peacefully after the argument.

But they had met a small village before Tala and Bryan had hoped, and they had robed it from everything they could find and use. They had also found the owners of the houses, as skin-coated skeletons in or beside their beds**(1)**, which told them that Boris had cared shit about the bodies of the dead adults and let them be where they had fallen.

To sum up, they had taken what they needed, though only a few people had been 'brave' enough to go into the bedrooms and take some blankets of the none-skeletoned beds. Tarpaulins, pots and pans, jackets, clothes, bandages, carving knives, medicine and what else they might need later was taken with them, and when they found out it was damn much stuff and they couldn't travel with it, Bryan hijacked two old pickup trucks with help from his captain.

The cars had been standing a whole winter and only unwillingly began coughing forward, but it worked in the end, and they had something to put their new luggage in. Though only temporary, as they hoped to meet a surviving human-friendly animal, so they didn't have to drive through the forest with the rusty old cars.

Then they had stopped, and using their new materials, they got better shelters out of the tarpaulins, though the houses hadn't had enough plastic blankets to make shelter for 196 people. The pots and pans gave them the chance to get warm food, and the luxury was welcome. They had been living of porridge the last many months, even though the kitchen, obviously, had been filled with fresh meat and everything. It could make most of them angry to find out.

The third day of freedom was very cold and very clouded in the early spring, and it lead to more walking. People were exhausted though they only had walked a small amount of days. But in this terrain after months of malnutrition under miserable conditions had made them weak, no matter how hard their training had been.

That didn't stop them from wanting to go on, even if it was taking long for them to move. And with the two pickups that wasn't built to drive through forests, it could take even longer. For that reason, people still began to cheer when Tala called them to a halt, even if they wanted to get as far away from the castle as they could. Without Boris seeming to be following them, they felt a little too secure, which made them eager to walk slower than they otherwise would.

"The weather is going to be bad. Help each other setting up the shelters and start the fires." The wolf had been with a group of absolutely unknown people for Bryan. Everyone had found groups for their own, either as a cause of neighboring in the cells, same nationality or knowing each other from the time before. For example, the professional world champion bladers had found together. And then, of course, the emerald was by himself. Hillary was at his side, though she fit in by the world championship bladers, but else, he walked by himself, looking out for his dear captain.

They moved instantly. The redhead was a natural leader, and his training only made him better at the job. They helped each other with the shelters and fires across their bigger groups as hunters, material makers, cooks and the shelter people, since it seemed to be an emergency, and it was. Just as the last fire had been lit, the water began pouring down, making the yellow-red flames seethe from the big, cold drips. People took cover, and Hillary still clung to the emerald's side as they took cover with Tala and the other big beybladers in one of the bigger primitive tents.

"Do we have enough wood for the fires?" Tala called out, leaning out of the tarpaulin-opening to look over at the other shelters, which made his hair drop and destroyed the remnants of his flying, significant hairstyle. The fires were placed a good distance away from the plastic to make sure they didn't lit up the plastic, but still close enough to warm them up a bit. He got the answer he wanted and yelled some more orders about keeping the fires burning and the wood dry. The, he took in his already soaked head inside again with a worrying look at the rain-attacked flames.

"You are doing a good job, Tala," a voice said, and the redhead's hypnotic blue orbs shot up to meet the pink-ish eyes of Mathilda. The wolf's eyes narrowed as he leaned back, trying not to shiver in the cold. He was Russian, for God's sake, he couldn't freeze in this place! This was nothing against the freezing, Russian winter, damn it! And he _was ice_!

"I'm just doing what I am trained to," he answered, quite pessimistic in a dark voice. This was the Tala they knew, the one that was focused on winning and never cracked a smile. But that wasn't the one they had seen the last days, but he had fallen back in his old role when he was with an 'old' group. Natural human behavior, but it still confused the rest.

All the 'not-Blitzkrieg-Boys-or-the-sleeping-Brooklyn' looked at each other, sharing their confusion, until Ming-Ming suddenly said something. She sat beside Tala, on the other side than the one Bryan had claimed. She watched him a second, and then exclaimed; "Tala, are you freezing?" For a second, he had been unable to hide his shiver, and of course, she saw it. Damn blue-haired, pop-star-faking, dress-wearing, weak, little, high-pitch-voiced, big-eyed girl!

"No!" And that was the perfect reaction. It didn't tell them that she had exactly right, no, of course not. Especially not when you sounded like a little, spoiled brat while saying it, no, no, you had done a perfect job hiding that weakness! Tala cursed in Russian in his head, and when he ran out of words, he cursed in every other language he knew too.

They all watched him with raised eyebrows, even damned Bryan, and the redhead elbowed him annoyed, causing the emerald to growl and instinctively elbow back. This caused the most to snicker. "I thought Russians liked the cold," Tyson said, snickering and smiling widely. And then the redhead did the last thing they would think of him.

He stuck out his tongue at Tyson.

Everyone stared at the redhead a second, but then, the wolf gave up his facade and began laughing loudly. "Man you guys look stupid!" he exclaimed at their expressions, and everyone else than the emerald roared in laughter, following the pattern the other shelters also did. But for a second, Bryan let his smirk drop and watched them with his plain face before making another 'I-kind-of-fit-in-here'-false expression. Then he rose from his seat. "Where are you going?"

"I'm getting you a blanket and saving our fire from dying against the rain," the emerald answered his captain, already out in the rain, getting soaked. The wolf scowled, still with a playful look in his eyes. This was typical his teammate.

"Take a blanket to yourself too you fool, you are going to get soaked!" The redhead looked over at the sleeping Brooklyn, sitting beside his teammates, Mystel and Garland, with his normal, lazy expression and the head one his knees, his arms around his legs. He had freakingly enough managed to get the blood off his white clothes, but how he had done it was a mystery. The way he sat looked quite uncomfortable, but he was sleeping nonetheless. "And take bandages and medicine with you for the Sleeping Beauty over there!" Those words caused another amount of snickering, but they were drowned when one of the other shelters suddenly let out a roar of laughter. Good mood, eh?

The emerald came back inside and dropped the two blankets on his captain's head and threw the bandage and medicine to Garland before sitting down. "There you go, cap'n," he said, smirking as he knew he had done something funny, though the rest didn't laugh just yet. The redhead was absolutely tangled in to the blankets. When he finally found out, he shot a death glare at his teammate, who still had the smirk on his face. But Tala had no clever comment.

"Hey!" was all that came out of his mouth before he tossed one blanket back, but when Bryan ducked, Hillary was hit straight in the face, which caused her to throw it at Tala... And miss. Soon, Bryan's blanket **(2)** flew around in the shelter, nearly knocking the tarpaulins off. In the corner, Garland shielded Brooklyn from the less-friendly wakening a blanket in the head was, only by luck managing not to get hit though they leaned over by the edge of the shelter.

"Brooklyn, wake up," the material artist said, poking the citrine in the chest. Apatite eyes opened at watched him lazily, yet accusatory, as if it was a crime to wake him up. The scene of people throwing a blanket on each other didn't seem to surprise him at all, but it wasn't a surprise, as nothing surprised this weird, little teen. "I have to change your bandages," Garland told, and the citrine tilted his head, this time questioning. It was by pure luck Mystel grabbed the blanket before it could hide them from the world after a throw from Tyson. "Take of your shirt."

A smugly smile broadened on the citrine's face, causing Garland to sit back in surprise. This was very unlike Brooklyn. "That's what she said," the citrine exclaimed, loud enough for everyone to hear, but low enough that it was not going to strain his poor throat saying. Everyone stopped their doing, even Bryan tilted his head and raised an eyebrow as they stared at the lazy face framed by orange hair. Brooklyn seemed very pleased with himself.

"Did he just tell a joke?" Tyson asked, everyone staring at the poor, white teen with wide eyes. "That was the last thing I would think about him!" This time it was Tala who broadened a smile, leaning back with crossed arms.

"That's what she said."

"Argh, stop it!" Tyson groaned, making Enrique snicker. While this, Brooklyn _did _actually take off his shirt for Garland to do his job, his lazy smile watching the scene he had begun. Garland just sighed at the stupidity.

"That's what she said," the Italian told, everything but his wicked smile looking and sounding very, very serious.

"This is getting very cheesy," Hillary sighed beside Bryan and Enrique, and Tala laughed again.

"Yeah, she said that too," the wolf promised, grinning, then threw the blanket at Bryan, who was shivering slightly from the cold. He and his clothes were still soaked, and the rain still hadn't stopped. Outside, the fires where still burning, but only with help from the residents in the shelters. The emerald seemed to give up and took the blanket around his shoulders. No one wanted to say anything, afraid to be the next victim of 'she said'.

Enrique began sniffing to the air, looking very unlike himself, until the nobleman wrinkled his nose in disgust. "It smells like mummy," the Italian mumbled to himself, his eyes shifting towards Tala and Bryan, the ones sitting closest to the exit. He scouted out in the rain, but the water made it impossible for him to see anything.

"You miss your mommy?" Tala asked, and from the look on everyone's faces, that was what they all had heard. They stared at him as if he had done something very weird, then began snickering again, Tala leading them. Brooklyn, though, seemed to get serious. Then the citrine nodded and muttered something like 'they're here', but no one listened.

"NO!" the Italian said, angry at them. How could they think that about him? Tsk, stupid, insolent fools! "I said it SMELLS like MUMMY." Could he make it more obvious for them to hear now... Seemed he had to try.

"Who are you saying smells like a mummy?" Hillary asked, her eyes narrow as she thought he talked about her. She sat right beside him, and the Italian facepalmed while the rest obviously began to laugh. They couldn't take anything serious right now, and only Bryan and Brooklyn looked like they didn't have fun. Brooklyn was just his normal, dreamy self while Bryan looked like he was trying to break an incredibly hard code. The Italian opened his mouth...

"Hnhnhnhnhnhnhnhnhn..." Wicked laughing. Normally meant wicked actions, so Bryan was immediately up and outside, only to come in a second later, his face confused as he pointed over his shoulder, even more soaked.

"Who are they?" the emerald asked, pointing at four figures stood with old, brown coats and glowing eyes, hiding in the darkness. The light of the fire only barely reached them, and the laughter continued to radiate from them. Tala looked outside, and only he, his teammate and Mathilda was oblivious to who those people was. Even the BEGA's looked at them in recognition, how that happened was a mystery.

"The Dark Bladers!" Tyson exclaimed loudly, making everyone cringe over the sound, and Tala struck him across the neck from the other side of the shelter, as he always had done it with Ian was he got too loud. Tyson stared after the wolf with surprise and confusion more than anger, as this was another side of the redhead they still weren't familiar with. The wolf stood himself beside his muscular teammate, watching as the hooded figures _floated_ closer to camp.

"Told I you smelled mummy," Enrique sighed and stood up. "What the hell are you guys doing here?" He looked very displeased and very noble as he walked forward, but kept himself under the tarpaulin, so he wouldn't be touched by the rain. The one with glowing yellow eyes came forward, and showed himself to be covered in paper-like things.

"Oh, Enrique, I thought you were dead!" Cenotaph said, his voice as rough and creepy as always. The Italian crossed his arms and didn't look scared at all, which made Mathilda decide she wouldn't creep out over the mummy, who was the only one you could see what was at the moment. "Happy surprise. Might still have a chance beating you, then."

"Brooklyn, this is the bladers you told us about, right?" Garland asked, and the citrine nodded and began walking out through the rain, past the confused Blitzkrieg, standing out as much as he usually did. The only difference from normal was that he was walking towards a group of monsters like they were best mates. For some reason: Not weird.

"Who are they?" Tala asked the others, he and Bryan turning to the ones under the tarpaulins and ignoring that Brooklyn was still walking over towards the unknown people that didn't feel quite human. But unfortunately, they all chose to ignore the two confused boy, leaving them to guess, as the hooded figures was forced to concentrate on the citrine and the rest was... well, the rest. The wolf began to turn red in annoyance while Bryan kept a straight face.

"Hello, Brooklyn," red-eye said, looking at the citrine. He appeared to be a vampire... and watched Brooklyn's outstretched hand in confusion before slowly taking it, like it was the weirdest thing he had ever done. Shaking hands with another person. That only helped the wolf getting even more angry and curious, and he scowled at Bryan as if it was the emerald's fault that they were ignored. Beside them, other people looked out of their shelters at the new ones.

"Nice to see you again," Brooklyn said, his ever lazy smile planted on his face as he shook hand with a bloodsucking, humanlike leech. All the hooded figures, and not hooded, stared at the now soaked citrine, silence growing over them, so only the sound of the rain on the tarpaulins and the seething fires was heard. Then, three people talked the exact second, all of them asking a question to the group of monsters.

"Who are you?" Tala asked once again.

"How do you know each other?" Tyson asked Brooklyn and the group.

And "What are you doing here?" Enrique asked again.

The four monster looked at each other, the last two finally revealing themselves as a zombie/Frankenstein monster and a werewolf. The leader, the vampire, took his hand out of Brooklyn's with the speed of a snake, looking nearly disgusted at his hand, like shaking hand with someone was the worst thing he had ever done. "We are the Dark Bladers," he answered, showing his fangs in a wicked smile that was supposed to scare Brooklyn away. Good luck, fangy-fang. "A group of monster-bladers. My name is Sanguinex, the werewolf is my little brother Lupinex, and that is Zomb and Cenotaph." Nice of him to answer Tala, at least. But neither of the Blitzkrieg-Boys seemed the least bit cleverer. "We met Brooklyn two years ago in Norway... Long story. But anyway, we saw the first living humans for half a year and came to play, HREHRAHRAHRAHRAHRAHREHRAAA!" The laughter made everyone other than Brooklyn and the Blitzkrieg-Boys shiver. Tala had gotten a curious expression on his face, while Brooklyn and Bryan looked... well, like Brooklyn and Bryan, one with his lazy smile, the other with a blank, emotionless expression.

"Does that, like, monsters... Are you serious?" the redhead asked. Why the hell didn't Tala think it was a lie? Bryan knew monsters weren't real, so he didn't know if he should act with the scaredness or not. All the while, his captain walked closer, looking like a kid that had seen Santa for the first time in his life and just wanted and _had to_ touch that freaking beard. "May I touch your fangs, Sanguinex? Just... try...?" The wolf walked closer yet with cautious feet.

"Eehh..." the vampire said, and when the redhead came a little too close, Sanguinex backed away with wide, red eyes. His little brother, on the other hand, reacted, and with a growl, the werewolf had placed himself between his brother and the redhead, only to realize he had fangs to. Tala took up his hand and began rocking the tooth.

"Alright, now I believe you are monsters," he said, but didn't let go of the tooth. The werewolf growled again and used his paw-like hand to shove the redhead away from him. It left a bunch of bloody scratches on the redheads arm, and the wolf growled back and... punched an angry werewolf... in the face?

The werewolf jumped him with a wolf-like bark, and Tala growled back with a wolf-like bark when he hit the ground with the monster on top of him. The vampire growled to his brother that he should get back, but a few seconds later, Tala was free of the werewolf. The redhead looked up, meeting the sight of Bryan, standing before a group of monsters with one under his foot, beating the poor werewolf up. NO ONE touches his captain!

The emerald send one last punch in the face of Lupinex, who was lying down. Then, the mummy began flowing towards him to come at his friend's aid, and Bryan placed his foot on the werewolf's chest and punched the mummy before it could attack him. Getting a grip on the paper around the now-confused Cenotaph, he sent the poor toiletpaperman down beside the werewolf and placed his other foot on that one. Zomb began moving, but Bryan pointed a gun in the monster's direction. Cold emerald eyes looked at the vampire, but not in an attempt of hostility.

"Know the way to Paris?" the emerald asked, as if he wasn't just threathening three monsters who was supposed to be able to shred him. The werewolf was digging his claws in his leg, but didn't get the right reaction. It was like scratching a stone. The vampire nodded, staring at the human like he was... a cross or something dangerous like that.

"That was where we were heading," the leader of the monsters said, still looking nearly scared at the teen.

"Mind leading us the right way, then?" Bryan asked, stepping off first the mummy, then the werewolf after pushing a little more of his weight on the werewolf. It seemed to tame the ever-bad tempered werewolf, and Lupinex fled on all fours, whimpering like a puppy and hiding behind his big brother. The vampire accepted the emerald's words.

* * *

Wind whistling trough leaf filled trees. Clear water seeping down the hills with long, green grass flowing in the wind, making an ocean of waving, slim straws. The sound of birds singing and chirping, building nests and dancing with their mates, and the female fox striding through the green ocean, looking for a prey to be able to feed it's coming cubs. Over the scene was the sun, shining brightly and making the beautiful fragrance of spring float through the air.

But the dream was shattered by a single sentence, and Kai Hiwatari did the best to glare Voltaire Hiwatari down to hell. "私はできませんが外に出？何あなたが話しては？！(I can not go out? What you are saying?)" he asked, so upset he was yelling in Japanese, his most spoken language. He was glaring at his grandfather with narrowed eyes, so that the violet only barely was seen. The slate hadn't seen the outside for months, and now where he had chosen to go on their side, now where he was ready to kill his old friends to satisfy Voltaire, he still weren't allowed to get out?

"There still a risk that you would chose to flee. We can't have that. So you stay inside until you have proven your worth," the old man answered calmly in English. The only one the Hiwatari-glare didn't affect was a Hiwatari. Sadly enough, since acid was dripping down on the walls if that was where the slate stared. Voltaire just looked at his glaring grandson with amusement braided into his normal, scowling face. "Of course, you can freely walk around in here." Oh, well, thank you, I am absolutely _not _tired of staring at black granite blocks! Can't I at least get a window?

"And there are no windows I can have, then?" the slate asked, intensifying his glare when he wasn't taken serious. It was only an hour ago that they had been eating dinner and he had shown him his abilities with his Black Dranzer. His fatal mistake. Now, they sat on each their own couch, and Voltaire had been leading the conversation, as always.

"This building has no windows," the old man answered, not even bothering to apologize. He didn't feel bad for his grandson at all, being the perfect villain he was, he actually felt a little satisfied. Of course, Kai wouldn't let him see the disappointment carved in his face, but his actions and glare told it all. And that was good enough for the old man.

"_This_ building?" Of course his grandson would catch it. The violet eyes narrowed as the teen watched the old man with less intensity and raised a questioning eyebrow. It was a stupid mistake for Voltaire's part, as he knew this Hiwatari weren't stupid, and that the boy would find the weakness, flaws, faults and fails in every statement and every sentence he ever heard. Nothing less for the youngest, and maybe most gifted, of their old, rich family.

But the boy was with them now, so why not tell him anyway? "Yes, this building. We have two more up the mountain, one for the scientists and another for 'prisoners'. This building here is guinea pigs." This caused the slate's eyebrow to twitch, and Voltaire smirked, not needing to hear the question. "Your father. And a few others, too. Neko-jin people." Unexpected for Voltaire, his grandson didn't react as he had foreseen. Nothing. Not even a question if his old teammate was a part of these prisoners. "Well, guess you're not interested in the laboratory. You know."

Kai nodded, his eyes reaching for the book on the table in front of them. It wasn't what he liked to read, but he hadn't read anything for a long time, so everything was satisfying. But as long as his nice, friendly grandpa was present, he couldn't get to read his book. So once again, he shifted his eyes to his grandfather, and narrowed them. "Am I coming with you?" If he would be honest to himself, he would know it wasn't what he wanted. But he chose to be a liar.

"Not yet. It's the same as going outside. I still can't be sure you do what I say. I have had many bad experiences with your constant changing mind, Kai." A smirk broadened on the mans face, and the slate gridded his teeth to hide his anger. "Once you have proven to me that you are trustworthy and will do what I say, you will be moved to my place."

"You are only doing this for your own pleasure," the teen commented, and the two of them looked into the eyes of each other for a little while. Then Voltaire raised his eyebrow, and the smirk disappeared on his normal frowning face.

"Yes." Why was it so far more annoying when he said it out loud? Kai's face was perfectly straight while he hid his irritation. They continued their staring contest a little while more, before Voltaire suddenly rose from his seat. "I'm going back now," he told, and Kai rose too, holding his face emotionless, though he was absolutely furious at this point of the conversation. It was quite normal when he and his grandfather spoke to each other, and as the only one person he had met, he wasn't able to get under the old mans skin. Unfortunately, this problem didn't go both ways.

"I'll escort you to the door, then," he said. The old man had given him permission to walk around inside wherever he wanted, so the old man was going to get as much of his presence as possible. For once, Voltaire looked the slightest bit annoyed because of one of his ideas, but he was in no position to argue. It would only be humiliating for him after his words and showing that Kai had found a weak spot. But the younger Hiwatari knew this, and the game continued.

They went out of the door to the cell, and the silence surrounded them as they walked through the many halls, towards a part of the ground floor Kai hadn't been yet. If he remembered the map right, it lead to an exit on the opposite side than the one the escapees had fled out of, but he was totally confused about the many floors since he had been moved from his own cell. Though he was beginning to like the new one... just the slightest, little bit.

The silence continued until the slate saw his grandfather's tenseness disappear a little. It was his unconscious way to tell he was letting down his guard, but Kai was quite sure only he himself knew this. Else, Boris and his likes would have used it to get better positions under their great master than Boris, Voltaire's right hand, being stoved away thousands of miles from the elder Hiwatari. That was how Voltaire's underling would play the game. So that would just have to stay his little secret about taking his grandfather off guard to win their little war.

"If I'm not allowed to go outside, how can I possibly prove myself?" the slate said, speaking very fast. Voltaire turned towards him and narrowed his eyes, so that the frown got even more hostile. But before he could open his mouth and speak, Kai continued, looking like he didn't care about the world at all. "You constantly say I have to prove myself, and the best way to prove my worth is to capture them again, right? Or do you have any other suggestions to what would make me trustworthy enough to come with you?" Their eyes met, and the old man opened his mouth again after snapping it shut at Kai's next words. Maybe the slate actually was able to win this time.

"Train hard and don't show your opponents any mercy, then I will consider it."

Good answer, Voltaire. But not yet good enough. "But you are not here to determine whether or not I am ready, are you?" Once again, fast speaking, no emotions shown on his face other than not caring at all. "So you have to listen to what Boris say, and he doesn't like me." That was no secret between those three. Boris was more than tired of the games Voltaire found fascinating about his grandson. It was a proof of a true Hiwatari, to be able to stay on top of every situation and get all the information you wanted by messing with people. Sadly, the younger Hiwatari had found some... resistance towards his grandfather and his ideas. Wherever he had gotten this resistance was a mystery.

But Voltaire Hiwatari hesitated five seconds before he had something to say, which was three seconds too much. The slate hid his triumph from his face before he stopped his grandfather's words even before they got out of his mouth. "You could ask him to send you videos of me, of course, but what would show me to be ready? It's really hard, you know, to get the right moments on tape. Of course, there are so many cameras in this building, but that is only on the lower part." Voltaire stopped and began glaring him down, not hiding his anger. His body was tense again, but once again, Kai was faster. "Besides, Boris doesn't have your taste. He doesn't necessarily know what you would want to see me doing as proof of my loyalty, or would prefer to keep it to himself because he knows I want to get to you."

"_Stop _playing your games, boy, I'm not letting you outside," Voltaire spat, though he was quite interested in seeing how far the teen would and could push him. He was determined not to let the kid get out and feel the fresh air, simply because it was his reward for finally listening and doing as he was told. "You are clever," the older Hiwatari continued, this time more controlled in his voice. "You'll find your way. If not, you aren't worth me."

"But you _can _see my problem," Kai continued, not afraid enough of his grandfather's anger to stop the game, though it was obvious he had lost by the finish line. He had been close, which probably was what hurt most right now. So close, yet so far... "It wouldn't be there if you allowed me to threaten Boris. But I don't think you would like that."

The old man raised an eyebrow at the last comment. "No, you may not threaten him, that's my job. But if you hadn't said that, you would have been able to use that tactic, Kai." The sides of the slate's mouth lifted themselves a little in a very weak attempt not to show his smile. Their eyes met again, this time evaluating in stead of glaring and fighting.

"I am aware of that, Voltaire," Kai informed, a smirk broadening on his face. "By the way, you are a very good player at my game." Voltaire's eyebrow rose again. "But for the threatening, it wouldn't be nice to hide that I would do it. I might be too honest for your standards, when you look at your other underlings. Guess it's hard to find a person, who is both willing to end the world as we know it and still be somewhat righteous." Change of tactics. Though a twitch in the corner of Voltaire's mouth told him it hadn't worked, and the smile disappeared from the slate's face again.

"How charming you are towards yourselves. If you wasn't so eager to constantly change side and loyalty, I would give you right, but unfortunately, we have seen your wild side a little too often." Under my skin, under my skin, one damned more time, you have managed to get under my skin! Kai gritted his teeth to the point where it hurt.

"I'm a teenager, you expect me to follow all your orders?" New angle. Weak attack, but it was a new angle he hadn't tried before. Sadly enough, Voltaire began laughing, and Kai couldn't see the funny things. But he held his face emotionless and broke their eye contact once again while he went on to think of a new way to get his will.

"No, Kai," the older Hiwatari said, actually still chuckling. Very unlike him, but Kai didn't look his way, trying to come up with something while the old man continued his speaking. "I expect you to argue with me, play with me, try to find a way around my laws, exactly what you are doing now. But what I also expect from you is at least staying by my side in the war, instead of doing the thing that is natural for both of us and find the place where you will win most. That is what I expect, and you have never been doing that. You follow the instinct of perfect survival while still getting the power you long for. Now, you have the power within your reach, but it is in my hands, and I will make sure you understand this time that I will not grant you anything as long as you don't stay truth. I gave you too much last time, everything you wanted, and you threw it away when you found out it didn't satisfy you and went back to your friends. This time, you want something bigger, my seat. And I will give it to you." Kai's violet eyes shot up to look at the mans face at those words, letting himself hope for just a second. "In time, I will give it to you."

The slate growled in irritation and spat on the floor. It seemed like a victory for Voltaire, until the teen once again looked up at him. "Then we are back to the problem. I have no way of showing my _affection _to you." That one word was spat out like it brought him distaste. "I don't trust Boris to do anything positive for me, so you either stay for now till you have decided, or I'll come with you right away and show you in Florida that I mean what I say this time. Boris is just in the way." They continued their walking, getting past many doors and a few cells. Kai ignored the prisoners.

"Oh, Kai, you are hurting me." _Not _the voice Kai needed to hear right now. He looked up and saw Boris holding a black umbrella a few feet in front of them. Though the first thought of him being there was very annoying, the sight of him and the second thought was quite hilarious. Nothing could brighten your mood as the sight of a hated person, covered in bandages and bruised, just like he deserved. The only thing missing on Bryan's part was actually killing him off, but guess there hadn't been enough time for them to do so. But that only let Kai enjoy this pleasureful sight.

"Oh, Boris, I didn't mean to," Kai answered, mimicking the way Boris had talked. The purple haired stared at the teen, narrowing his hateful, red eyes. The slate just answered with his plain face, before looking at his grandfather again. "See what I mean? I can't possibly trust _him _to do the job right. And that means you can't, either."

"You do have a point, Kai, but that doesn't make me change my mind. I will come every month, then, to see your progress." Why is he so stubborn? Because he enjoy doing this, that's why. And it's annoying that I know it and aren't even able to change anything about it. What progress is he even talking about? How can I do better at something I don't even know what is? The only thing I want to do is see the sun again, but he is in the way.

"I could also just capture the escapees to prove it to you. If you haven't captured them yet, after three-four days, _you_ are not going to." He looked at Boris, making sure the man knew he was the one the teen was talking about. Then, Kai looked up at his grandfather. "I guess you don't want to let them be as they are now. They may not be very well armed, and they might be outnumbered by your total forces, but Tala is not going to give up. And he alone would be able to win this war against you if he was as fueled as he are now, after having been locked up for months, so what do you think he would be able to with about 200 people who are just as angry with you as their leader is?" Weak spot.

"It will take them time before they are strong enough to do us any harm," Boris reassured, and Kai turned his attention to the red eyes. The purple-haired, on the other hand, was staring into the eyes of his master with caution. Seemed a new fight was beginning, a fight over the right seat beside Voltaire, a battle where Kai's blood promised him as the victor. But Boris didn't look like he was going to give up to easy.

But the slate was also more skilled than the man. His right to the seat was hard to question with that mind and that way of thinking, always able to find a way to confuse, cheat or get information from his opponent. Or just win a battle, as he did now. "And by the time you actually catch their trail, it will be too late, and they will shoot you down like rag dolls in a psychopath-kids room, and laugh while they do it. I know where they are most likely to go."

"And where is that supposed to be?" Voltaire kept quiet and let the fighting cocks blow themselves up. Boris seemed like he was just about to burst, while the teen looked calm and slightly amused by the situation. If Kai knew something, but Boris began to argue, which one should he trust? Which one would be right? It was likely to happen, which meant he had to chose between them, and they would see it as a choice between them as his underlings.

"Paris. Bryan will convince Tala to go to Paris because it is 'strategically the best move', and Tala will lead them to Paris. It might take them a long time to reach the capital, months, because they don't have a map and will keep away from roads, but I am absolute certain that is where Bryan will make sure they stay," the slate answered, but Boris reacted by snorting and trying to cross his arms, until he remembered the splint on his broken arm and ended up grimacing in pain instead. Ugh, yeah, a beaten up Boris was about the most funny thing Kai had ever seen.

"Bryan would never go into a city. It's too obvious. Especially not a capital, that is just too easy to figure out. He will think of what the last thing his opponent would think of is, and then go there," the man said, but this time it was Kai who snorted. Boris had just contradicted himself, and didn't even see it himself.

"No, he will think what you think and then what you are most likely to think and use it against you. As you said, the last place you expect to find him. You just said it yourself, he will figure out you doesn't think he would go there. That was also what I thought in the beginning, it was too obvious to take to Paris, but I changed my mind." The two stared at each others, and Voltaire kept quiet to decide by himself. Was the teammate or the coach the one that knew the enemy's mastermind the best? Who could even think like a person who didn't even feel?

"I'm the one who knows him the best. He hasn't changed since he got out of my hands, and that means I know how he thinks," Boris growled, stomping the black umbrella in the black stone floor, though it seemed to cause him a lot of pain. "He will keep away from the cities. I know him, Kai. Seems you don't."

"Have you ever thought that it might be him who knows you and not the opposite?" Kai said in a matter-of-fact-tone, crossing his arms and leaning over towards the wall. He was very aware of his grandfather's silence, and this not-normal behavior of his made the teen feel uneasy. It meant he was thinking, and when that man was thinking, it rarely came out positively for the teen. If he was lucky, it was going to change. Unfortunately, he didn't feel very lucky.

"So you think a boy with no feelings, no personality, little imagination and little ability to mix himself with others should be able to follow my way of thinking? Know where I would go search for him and know where I wouldn't?" Boris glowered at the smaller one, his eyes filled with anger, but Kai answered only with a lazy look. Why does that seem... well I don't know... totally ridiculous?" The two of them finally looked at each other with the feeling of pure hatred in both their eyes. The teen was finally ticked off well enough not to hold back his emotions, and he pushed himself from the wall and tried to grow a couple of feet, so he at least didn't feel like a midget standing in front of Boris.

"Seems you don't count his mind in. While he lack all those other things, it only make him even more capable of getting into your way of thinking, cause his feelings for you doesn't get in the way, unlike anyone else that has ever seen your stupid, ratlike face." It didn't succeed for the slate to grow, but his words was as precise as if he had been a feet taller than now. "You don't see how you contradict yourself? The most unlikely place to go is where you think it is most wrong, and that is Paris, a capital, the place most other people would head. Because he has that mind, you think he can go into the head of unknown, normal people and see that Paris is where they would go and avoid that place, but you think that you yourself, a man he has known as long as he remember, would be a mystery for him?"

"Enough." Voltaire finally said something, and motioned for the younger man to move on. "Make sure they make my plane ready, Boris. I'm leaving." Boris bowed to him with a stiff movement because of the pain, gave Kai a last angry look before limping down the hall. When he was out of the way, Voltaire and Kai continued too, walking slower than before. "We are going to follow what Boris say, Kai," the old man informed him, making the teen glower at him too.

"You are going to waste valuable time looking for them in the wilderness while they make themselves ready to kill you in Paris," the slate said, trying to sound not-insanely mad. It succeeded, but the old man still knew the younger's feelings. "I'm just trying to prove to you that I'm serving you, and I'm a 100 percent sure they are heading towards the capital of whatever country we are in, and since we are in France, it must be in Paris."

The old man suddenly stopped, and Kai suddenly realized his mistake and came up with an escape-plan. "How do you know we are in France? I'm quite sure I haven't told you, and Boris shouldn't have, either." The dark eyes of the older man narrowed, and Kai felt the uncomfortable, yet well-known feeling of the other one trying to look right through him.

"The guard that clean the toilet told me by mistake," he informed, and though it was a lie, the truth had to not be discovered. It lead to the direct link between Kayenka, helping the group, and that would make him loose his threat towards Maxim, so that the guard would tell them his assumption about the slate helping the escapees. He knew the bearded guard was having his thoughts, and if the guard was clever, he would find the obvious evidence that laid in his old cell.

"Oh." The old man looked at him for a long time, before nodding. The truth was safe, for now. "Did you ever play your little games with your little Bladebreaker-friends?" That was a surprising question, but Kai didn't let himself get surprised.

"No. Not in many years, at least. They are too innocent to understand the rules."

He received a nod, and they stopped in front of a door. Finally he would be able to get a glimps of the outside... But then, he saw the tenseness leave the older man, and a thing that had been bugging him since before they left his own cell. It would be a mistake to ask, but he had to do it. "Is Rei in the prison?" he asked, doing everything he could to keep the voice from sounding like it cared.

"No." By the look on the old mans face when he had answered, it was obvious he wasn't supposed to know this. But when the man moved to get out of the door, Kai gripped his hand and looked him into the eyes with a questioning look. "The neko-jins we didn't catch at their village got cornered. They chose death before captivity, and I was there. And saw your friend jump of the cliff." Why was he telling this? He could just have taken his hand to himself and left if he didn't want to answer. But the man's face hand a wicked smile. "We found their bodies. He's dead, Kai."

It took all his effort not to show his emotions on his face. Max was already dead, and now Rei was too... It didn't matter. No, it didn't matter at all. They weren't his friends anymore, guess he had never seen them as friends. Instead of thinking of the hurt he blocked from his mind, he stood in front of the door, waiting for the sun to show its light to him for the first time in many months. His grandfather opened the door, but no shiny beams caressed him.

The outside world was ironically dark and rainy.

* * *

Days passed by, and the monsters lead the way towards the capital. After a lot of questions to the temporary leader of the group about how clever it was to trust the monsters, the redhead had been forced just to say that he trusted his teammate. To be honest, the redhead was a little scared of the fact that he had punched a werewolf in the face, and while this made the monsters forgive him for doing it, the still stared at Bryan like he was a monster to monsters.

The different groups was doing their job, and Tala had set them to think about who the leader of their group would be. He was in the group for people making food to help them gathering berries, while showing them his skills at burning everything and everyone when time came to cooking the food. Bryan was set to do the shelters, because Tala didn't trust him with a gun around a group of people stressed out because of lack of luck with their prey. And because he was good at making shelters. But mostly for the other reason. Of course, both of them helped the group of hunters to train the rest in the morning before the food got ready. Things were going good for them, and the ones who was making materials had made a good bunch of bows and arrows when they had found out Brooklyn was a master at carving... and when had gotten him interested in doing anything.

It was about dinnertime, two weeks after the deadly downpour. The professional bladers had gathered around the fire, watching as Hillary for the third day in a row was trying to save Tala's cooking. It didn't fit well for the redheaded captain, and he was sulking while looking at her working. It was notable that she had placed herself in front of Bryan, again, but Tala was too angry and sulking too much to care.

"I thought it was going well, Tala," Ming-Ming reassured him when she saw that the wolf had his old, demanding scowl on his face. The others snickered, making Tala glower even angrier at the food. No, it wasn't going well at all, and it hadn't been going, either. At least Bryan kept his mouth shut about how his cooking had been home in Moscow.

"Yeah, and that is the reason why she has to help me making it good again?" the wolf snapped at the smaller girl. The emerald looked first at his captain, his face plain for emotion. Then, he shifted his gaze to where the monsters was sitting, which was a place where darkness was ruling. He could see them shiver when he looked at them, but didn't care at all. He knew they had had a lot of fun during the weeks, scaring people who came too close.

"I'm not helping you, I'm doing it for you," Hillary corrected. "I don't see you down on your knees to repair the damage." The icy glare from the shining blue eyes shifted from the food to the girl helping him. He was in a bad very mood, and he knew why he couldn't concentrate on hiding it. He was hiding something else. Cause once again, Tala had got a fever.

"Yeah, you should be happy for that," he commented silently as she stood up, and finally they could eat some half-burned food. No one complained, though, kind of afraid of pissing the already pissed redhead off. The sun was slowly disappearing, and soon, only the campfire lit the different groups of people. As soon as the redhead was done eating, he excused himself and went over to another one of the fires where other people was. The emerald didn't follow him with anything else than his eyes before he, too, stood.

"I'll go to bed." What else had he to do? He had to think. And there still was the letters from Voltaire to Boris he had to check. He had read seen Ian's name at least once, and he was having thought that the midget still lived. No hope, only thoughts. But he laid himself in his and Tala's shared, smaller shelter with a flashlight and the letters in his hand.

… _They are still resisting. It is no surprise that Ian is leading, but we are still investigating how he got out. He tried to take a big number with him, but to our luck, we got most killed. I assume only five is alive, so there is no risk in letting them be. The desert is going to do the job. It's very like the boy not to think of the surroundings..._

… _They tried to attack us. There were fifteen living escapees in all, and Ian has found weapons. The small group killed a few guards, but we got more than they. This time, I'm certain there are only six people resisting left..._

… _I haven't heard from him since the attack, no. Seems the Egyptian desert did what it was supposed to do..._

…_The Egyptian desert... _

There it was. The emerald sat up abruptly, creasing the papers as he stood up, but then stopped. Should he wait till tomorrow? His captain was moody enough right now to want to direct them all around to head for Egypt to find their missing member, one who might not even be alive. Tomorrow was better, after the redhead had slept a few hours...

He heard a sound out in front of the shelter and tensed a little, waiting for whoever was on its way and ready to attack if it was necessary, but then the 'door' was opened, and Hillary looked at him. She bit her lower lip and had every sign of nervousness on her, and he tilted his head in confusion. What did she want? "I... Ehm... Hi, Bryan..." Small smile.

"What do you want, Hillary?" He let the shadow of a smile cross his face, so the words didn't sound unnecessary hostile. He had no opinion about this girl. She was slightly inferior, didn't really have any skills, but was good social.

She moved closer to him, away from the opening and the looks that might come, her brown eyes wide and weary. "I... I just want you to know that... Ugh, I'm so confused." The normally loud, talkative girl was speechless. "It just... since you held me, when Max died... I have been thinking..." The taller was simply watching her without moving, but she, once again, moved closer, until they were less than an inch from each other. He still hadn't moved. "I... I know they say you don't feel, but I don't believe it. I _can't_ believe it. Somewhere, you... must have something."

She touched him. A small, light movement, and her fingertips touched his muscular chest. He, unlike the most, didn't seem to have lost any weight, since he hadn't had any fat on his body when he had gotten into the castle, and he had managed to keep his muscles, despite the malnutrition. Another hand, as slow as the other one, wrapped around his waist, but he still didn't move. Her body against his made Boris' shivers go down his spine, but this time... it was different. It took her a second to move again, his lack of response nearly driving her away from him. He knew this, and took a second to think before laying her down on the ground, on his blanket, and though he still let her take the initiative, he had at least shown her he didn't oppose her. It reminded him of the forgotten. The мама he had shot.

In some way, the touch was kind like hers, and yet not as innocent, though he didn't remember her touch. It wasn't like Boris, ordering and demanding him around. But these were the only touch he knew, and this girl was like... a fusion of those. She reached up and touched his chin, and their lips met slowly, letting a sensation of heat through his body, and his instincts forced him to response. He felt her smile into his lips and her hands moved again, feeling over his body. Finally, her hand moved down between his legs.

She didn't see what happened, didn't even feel it. But suddenly, he was gone from under her, his lips disappeared into thin air. She looked around and found him on the opposite side of the shelter, staring at her like she was a monster. "Why... Do you punish me...?" he whispered, but the words reach her, and her eyes widened. She didn't know what it meant. She only knew something was very, very wrong.

Then another experience of not experiencing anything before it was happening, and she didn't even get to scream before she hit the ground ten feet from the shelter, the older teen standing in the opening. Once again, his eyes were emotionless instead of scared and confused. Then, without a word, he began walking towards her, and she didn't like the look on his face. She tried to flee, but realized her knee had been damaged when he had thrown her.

"Bryan?" The bigger teen stopped, looking over at the redhead who had spoken. Then, the emerald turned without a word, and Tala squatted beside her, stroking her chin. "I have wanted to talk to you for a while," he said, and just as she felt comforted from his nice touch, he pulled her up from the ground and supported her till she found her balance on the wounded knee, and then dragged her past the shelter they just had been in, in to the darkness away from the dancing light of the fires. "Are you alright?" was the first thing he said. She nodded, and he sensed it in the darkness.

After making sure no one was too close, the wolf began talking. What he didn't know was that Bryan was still able to hear them through the shelter, and that the emerald was listening hard to make sure no one came and attacked Tala.

"I once knew a dog," Tala began, and Bryan tilted his head in confusion. Seemed he was the only one who was confused, since the girl's voice mixed with the redheads. "No, let me finish. I once knew a dog. It was... a German Shepherd, a very clever dog. And even for this clever kind, it was very bright. But it was stolen from its мамa before it was ready and taken to a man who trained many of these dogs, and he found out the dog was special. It was not normal for him to get his hands on the most clever creatures, so he made this dog his special assignment. He had many others who was trained to either dogfights, also called blading, or to help them in fights against humans. But instead of setting the clever dog on one of these, he trained it to both dogfights, armytraining and to be his personal bodyguard, able to read a situation and decide if it was threatening for its owner.

But one day, the actions of the dogtrainer was sniffed out by the police, and the dogs was taken away from him. But with help from the German Shepherd, the man got away. Authorities found a way to treat the dogs and make them able to live in the society like normal, but the German Shepherd was so well-trained and mistreated it was impossible to change. Like the fighting dog it was trained to be, it found a new owner, one of the former dogs of the creep who had trained them. The new owner loves his dog a lot, but like every fighting dog, the dog is bound to make the terrible mistake on day and kill a man, cause that is what it is trained to. The owner also knows that the man the dog could end up killing could be himself, if the dog found a new owner or came back to the old one.

Then, one day, a girl came. And she fell in love with the poor creature, despite its aggressive behavior. She is used to the normal dogs, and though she knows the dog is different and may be dangerous, she believes she is the one to change it back to the German Shepherd it was supposed to be. So she treats it like every other dog. And though it might only have bitten her in the finger once, the love for a fighting dog like this one is a dangerous affair. It only takes one wrong step to get the dog to tear out her throat, since the dog has a hard time reading the situations its new owner gets into. But the thing is, the girl might be right. Maybe it _is_ pure love that is going to change the dog."

"So..." Bryan heard her hesitation as she tried to figure the redhead out. The emerald himself listened to it all without feeling anything. "You are saying I may not love him...?"

"No. But I ask of you to be careful. Bryan do not love anyone, like the dog he is trained as, he is simply trained to do his job. Not even I, his new 'master'..." Bryan could detect hurt in the redhead's voice when he said the word master. Bryan didn't understand this."... Is totally sure I can live a day in his presence and survive. You just have to realize that you, and not he, is the one who get hurt. You, and not he, is wasting the sweet life and love on something already lost. You, and not he, is setting your life on the line for something that might not even appreciate it if the effort pays of. No one knows who Bryan will be when he gets his personality back.

And, to be honest... I ask of you not to do this. Don't love him. Try to forget your feelings about him. If I hadn't get involved with him, my life and the life of my other teammates would be different, brighter. But Bryan ended up being a constant ache of our hearts when he sat a whole night in the dark corner, because he didn't need to get rid of the boredom he didn't feel, or when he sat at the bar the whole night at a party, drinking himself halfdead and to the hospital, because he found out it would scare off the bothersome girls without him looking too out of place. What I got most upset about when the girl argued with me wasn't her words, digging in the past, but that Bryan felt the need to kill her because she said _words_. Don't get involved in his life, Hillary."

Another long silence, and another moment Bryan didn't feel any irritation because of the words of his captain. Then, she reacted, and it wasn't pretty. "What is this about, Tala?" The voice of the girl was angry, very angry. And yet, the emerald could hear she only reacted like this because she was uncomfortable and scared. "You don't want me to love him? Or are you looking out for me now? We don't even really know each other! Is it because I got interested in Bryan and not you? Is that is? Cause I'm quite sure you are popular with the girls. And because you can't find anyone here, you decide Bryan must suffer and not meet one who actually likes him?"

"I'm not looking out for you, but for him. Your death on his list of wrongdoings is only going to make him so unpopular that the nice, understanding people in our group gets enough of him and throw him out. And by looking out for him, I must look out for you. My life before this does not matter, but what matters is the well-being of Bryan. As said, I can't stop you. Love him all you want. But then, you must face the facts. He won't care about you. He won't love you. He won't make any effort to keep or begin a relationship. And he might try to avoid you, because he do not want you to-"

The sound of the slap made Bryan jump to his feet, and he was out of the shelter a few seconds later, agile, strong and fast as he was. But then, he heard her next words. "Are you... Tala, do you have a fever?" It took him a second to think over what it could mean, but he decided her words meant nothing when she had hit him. The emerald jumped around the shelter and pushed her onto the ground, forcing her down with him on top of her. She screamed, and he felt Tala take him off her.

"Enough, Bryan!" Tala said, and though he wasn't stronger than the emerald, the other boy lifted himself from her. "Go back to the tent," he then ordered, and not even letting the emerald getting out of earshot, he turned to the girl and helped her up with the simple words: "Remember what I said, Hillary."

* * *

**(1)**That line lead to research about putrefaction of dead bodies, and that is very interesting! I recommend reading it!

**(2)**It rhymes! Why did I put it down here? Hmm... Have no idea, but Bryan's Blanket is alliteration! I think... xD

* * *

Okay, I'm LATE, and I don't have time to get look this through. I probably have many mistakes, especially in the last Bryan-scene, it's nine in the evening, I stop talking now, but I am still stressed. Anyway, here is the chapter. I am to stressed out to actually know if I think it is good or bad, but whatever ^^

And I'm not only late, I also made the chapter too long. It's supposed to be between... or we can take it in count of words ^^ Between 9000 and 10000 words, this is 12000 words, about two pages too long. And when I already am late, having to use too much space too is only making it worse, ya know!

But well... Enjoy in joy ^^


	12. Kinda an influential Helper

I'm low on inspiration... but I still write. I won't disappoint my many fans! *looks around on the empty homepage, finding only my beloved twins* Well, you can always hope ^^

But I have another problem too, or two, actually. First: I can't seem to find any good fanfics to read. It's a real pain, seriously, I love reading the good ones! And second: I have four good stories juggling in my head, trying to force me to write them down, but I don't know which one should be written when I am done with Bound to Change. So tell me if you want the story of Brooklyn's life, the prof. bladers lives after 15 years with focus Bryan's life, a Beyblade/X-men: Evo-crossover with Rei and Kai, or the sequel to Bound to Change, then say if you want to help me out... Though I would prefer not making the sequel until I'm done with at least two of the others.

Anyway, reviews ^^:

GatewaysDiary: HAPPY that you liked the first part ^^ I'm really, really bad at writing humor, so I was pretty sure it just would be stupid and cheesy and not funny, so I'm happy. And I couldn't find a lot to do in Kai's scene, cause it had to be a special lengths, and it was a little annoying, actually ^^ So it got kinda boring, I think. Anyway, jop, Rei... Nekos... Damn. But at least Rei didn't die in the series ^^ I was less lucky with my Gaara, in Naruto... *sniff* I actually have tears in my eyes again -.-' Anyway, Hillary... Honestly don't like her very much, but she just seems like one who could end up in a bad relationship any relationship with Bryan is, sooo... And for her, telling Tala... I'm not sure what she'll do yet. And for the rhyming, I am beginning to imagine Bryan opening a Blanket-shop-something because of it, and then it's veeery hard to think and make anything about him serious xD And... I was... pretty hyper O.o Actually got scared when I woke up next morning and read what I had written, man, you could think I was high! But I think you'll like next chapter ^^ Hmm... wonder when I can write a whole chapter without Bry doing violence...

My Own Demise: Oh my god, you are so lovely! You got me laughing, as every other time I read your reviews xD And yeah, teenage guys, that's what they are, that's what she said-jokes are stupid, and yet quite funny xD And I was actually cracking myself up by just the IDEA of Brooklyn starting the joke xD For the second part... Hope it's not too bad ^^ Both with him dead and the mood xD And yes, the German Shepherd was the image of Bryan. Or something. Anyway, at least you didn't read this while you were... Hyper. I did with Gateways' Heavenly Flames ^^ And... You don't have to read the review *shifty eyes* I just wanted to say that I found out the next day that I had missed EVERY SINGLE IMPORTANT PART of the chapter. Kinda... Ehh... yeah... I... was very... eh... well... ON WITH CHAPTER!

That was it... Though... I LOVE THIS CHAPTER! Or at least the last part ^^ Of it... Go ahead and read!

* * *

Kinda an influential Helper

* * *

The light of the torches danced over the black granite floor and ceiling with the shadows as its partner. He had just left the fluorescent lamps behind in the halls with the cells, going past many unknown faces. Kai had learned to avoid the hall with Emily and Miguel's cells, the two of them staring at him with pure hate. It wasn't like it hadn't happened before, at least with Emily... He had already stolen her bitbeast once and had turned his back to her and her side.

But it was best to avoid them. Cause it still... it still hurt somewhere, their glares. To be honest, he didn't know why it hurt, or that it was that which had caused him to keep away from them. But he just avoided them, it was easier that way. Besides, their hall led to a dead-end, so he had no real reason to go over to them anyway. And since he didn't train with the rest anymore, he never really met them anymore. That was alright in his opinion, when he avoided those two. The computer was a stronger opponent, instead of those weaklings that were left here. No-one could beat him with Black Dranzer. Which meant he didn't need _her _anymore, and she could stay where she were without him.

The door showed itself at the end of the hall, the well-known one, made of rough wood and promising to reveal a much hated man. But the slate knocked the door nonetheless, two fast knocks before waiting for the response from the man. "Come inside," he heard Boris' voice approve, and then he took the door handle and opened it. The purple-haired was, sadly enough, looking better, so you couldn't get a kick out of him every time you met him anymore. The bruises on his back that had made him unable to walk right were gone, and so were the bruises on his face. The only thing left for him to heal was his arm, but it wasn't a surprise since Bryan had broken it big time.

The man's face wasn't smiling when he saw the teen, but instead, an angry scowl showed on his face. He didn't have to ask, Kai already knew what he was about to say. The teen leaned against the wall beside the door, watching his opponent for a little time. "I'm just here to get to know how far you have come with the search. Since you haven't caught them yet, I would say no progress at all, but what do I know?" the slate said, his face not showing emotions.

Boris did the same, hid his emotions behind a mask before answering. "No, we haven't had progress." It took much effort for Kai not to smile at this news, and the purple-haired did see the tuck in the corner of his lips. It wasn't funny, it was annoying, but he was _not_ going to... "Save your breath, Kai, I'm not going to search for them in Paris."

"Then where are you looking? The forest? Though I only have been in France twice I know there are quite a few big forests. Or do you think they have reached the fields in the lower part of France? You just go on looking without a plan, or do you actually have a plan for what you are going to do, but hide it because you want to build up the tension and make it look like an even greater achievement for when you catch them?" Poke poke, come on, Boris, lose it!

The man in the office chair tried to cross his arms, but once again was reminded that one was broken. So, instead, he just leaned back in the chair with a cold look on his face. "Mind your own business, then I'll mind mine," he sneered, trying not to get sucked in to the game the slate was so good at playing. He only barely succeeded not bursting.

"I have no business, Boris, other than mocking you. But well, then, I'm going again." He let the scarf flow behind him while he walked down the hall, going for the kitchen. He reminded a lot of the kid that had had control over the Bladebreakers a few months ago, he had gotten his mysterious look back, instead of the shaggy one he had had a month ago. Cause it was a month since they had left, still if he was able to follow the normal rhythm of day and night.

Turning a corner, he walked down some stairs, walking faster to get quicker down to the kitchen. Why he was going there, he didn't really know, but he hadn't been there personally before. The last thing he had had to do with that room was when he had drawn it onto Bryan's map, but that was some kind of his own little secret. And he... Kinda wanted to have something that was in the kitchen.

After walking at a good pace for a while, Kai stood in front of a cold-looking metal-door. It seemed to be made of thin steel, and he hesitated a second, until he heard sounds from the other side of the door. Then, he took the two last steps towards it and pushed down the heavy handle, opening the door with a creaking sound. You should think they had power enough to make their doors stop making annoying sounds, right? Seemed then hadn't.

A wave of heat hit him like a hammer as he took a step inside a shining white room, lit by fluorescent lamps. The walls were covered in white tiles, the machines where white, the kitchen-tables had light steel-surfaces, and the lamps lit the room unbelievably well. It was a very sudden contrast to the big, black blocks of granite and the dancing light of the torches, and Kai was forced to cover his eyes from the light till it stopped hurting the two violets.

He realized people in black guard-like clothes were staring at him, and he just gave them a short look before moving out by the wall, looking around in the room. It was surprisingly big, and the kitchen-knives and spoons and forks and whatever they used for the cooking was lined up on a magnet-board, so it was easy for them to grab. And easy for him to grab. The cooking-guards, which they had to be called when they were both guards and cooks, continued their work after having continued to stare at him, and one of them actually approached him.

"If you are in here, then you have to help," the woman ordered. She was Asian-looking, seemed to be Thai or at least part Thai, and something about her made him uneasy. He also had the feeling that he should know her, though he was sure he had never seen her before. "Can you use a knife, or do I have to look you over the shoulder to make sure you don't destroy the food?" She narrowed her black eyes as he watched her over, evaluating, still not understanding what it was about her that made him react.

"I can use a knife, yes, but not for cooking-reasons," he said, letting the mystery about her be and thinking over his situation. "It can't be so hard to do. So, I guess I can see what the ugly porridge is made of now, can't I? My name is Kai, by the way." He wasn't in the mood of talking. Was he ever? But he wanted her name to be sure he if he didn't know her and his instincts just wanted to confuse him or knew her, but had forgotten her again.

"Rajini. And I will act like I didn't hear what you said about my food. Come here." She didn't touch him, which made him more comfortable. If she had touched him, he would have backed away, but she just expected him to follow, and he did this without saying anymore. But he didn't know her, that much he had found out. It was just his instincts that were kicking him, so he could get back into a state of constant paranoia instead of actually trust his untrustworthy grandfather. And that would only help him not to get with him back to Florida, when gramps came here in three days.

There was an empty place at the kitchen table, and he laid his hands on the cold steel and leaned towards it, watching the men and women work at their own places. Rajini grumbled when he didn't pay attention to her and placed some vegetables on the table with a knife and a chopping board. "I just want you to cut these in as small pieces as possible. Try not to bleed on them." Seems everyone in this building is a lover of sarcasm.

The slate didn't answer, at least not with words. The knife was too small for the one he decided he wanted to steal from here, but what was there to do about that? So he began working, finding out fast that he liked having something to do. He had just wasted a whole month doing nothing but to train and argue with Boris about his lack of progress on getting the escapees back, and though he always liked to train, he had done nothing progressive at all. Now, at least, he kind of helped someone doing something. He hadn't had any reason to be there until now...

After having watched him closely for the first few carrots he got through his selfmade chopping-machine, the woman decided he was able to take care of himself and went back to the work of her own, which was by the cooker with a pot that seemed kind of enormous. From what he could see, yes, that was the porridge-thingy the prisoners got. And it looked just as sticky and distasteful as it was last time he had seen it. And Emily and Miguel were still eating that.

Conscience began poking him in the back, and he got an idea. Continuing his work for a few hours, the Thai-woman making sure he constantly had something new to do, he got himself to steal some food without anyone noticing, while making sure he looked like the image of hard work. Both bread, dry meat, carrots, fruit and whatever else he was able to collect that was over the standard of the porridge, he took and hid in his pockets, under his clothes and in the scarf.

When he had been a street urchin, that had been how he survived. Stealing from the cooks, the shops and keeping himself warm under a frayed carpet in an alley of Moscow in the coldest part of the winter, frozen blue. Always waiting outside the school in Moscow to watch the spoiled brats interact with each other, proving the inhumanity of humans when they left the ones that trusted them for the ones that gave them more profit in getting popular or had more money**(1)**. He was good at stealing, but he hadn't used his abilities for a very, _very _long time now. That time was, like the abbey, only a hurting memory of the one-and-a-half-year he had been lower than a nothing, things that was gone in the clouds of memory, though he still had the experience and skills, good and bad, he had earned from it.

Lastly, he stole a knife of those you used for meat, a really big butcher knife. It was harder to take than the rest of the things he stole, cause it was bigger and very sharp, but he hid it under his clothes before suddenly turning to leave, done with his last portion of vegetables getting chopped into pieces. He headed for the door, happy that he had such loose clothes on. There was a difference on his look, but it was so small these people, who didn't know him well, was able to see. Making sure none of the food fell out of his shirt, he reached out for the handle.

"What do you think you are doing?" he heard Rajini sneer, and he turned his head towards her.

"I'm on my way out of the door," he said, raising an eyebrow. His nervousness was nearly unbearable, like always when he had stolen something, but his outside was as plain and cold as it was born to be. "Does it look like I'm doing other things?" He kept the face relaxed and normal, which meant cold, while his inside was a chaos when the nervousness collided with anger and irritation. Why was she so annoying? Couldn't she just leave, or at least keep out of his way? He just had to make sure she didn't get angry enough to touch or hold him, or he might be forced to reveal his misdeed.

"So you think you are done?" she asked, once again narrowing her black eyes at him. He cringed visibly when he shifted weight in an unlucky way, feeling the butcher knife's sharp end digging under his skin like a needle. He tried to keep that out of his thoughts, as needles always forced memories of his first stay at the abbey to arrive.

Trying to save the situation, he straightened up, again feeling the end of the knife move under his skin, and he was quite sure he was bleeding now. "No, I know I'm done." The situation was getting dire, so he had to get away fast. Turning before she got to say more, he opened the door and began walking without cringing or flinching whenever the knife moved around under the skin on the lower part of his chest.

The walk back up to his cell was a real pain. Physically, because of the knife, but also because he couldn't show his pain. There were cameras everywhere, and Boris would be able to see it if he didn't walk or act normal. That's what you get for wanting a weapon that is more effective in close combat than a beyblade. And the food was annoying, but he would have been able to take it with him and walk normal. It all was the pain of the knife that made it hard for him, so he couldn't even blame the two in the cells.

Finally reaching his cell, he hid all the food in a sack he also had stolen from the kitchen out on the toilet, also taking off his shirt to tend his new knife-wound and make it stop bleeding. Then, still with the knife hidden under his shirt, he hid it behind the books on the bookshelf by taking them all out, acting like he wanted to set them in order. That wouldn't be any sign to Boris about things going wrong, since he was very known as a psycho-perfectionist, needing to have everything done in a special way. Finally, he got his dinner from the guard, not even giving the man a 'thank you'. This dinner was not going to be his tonight, sadly. It was beef stroganov, something he loved.

He let it be on the table and sought down to the infirmary through the maze of stairs. He turned into it, meeting the sight of Katyenka, still with her arm in a sling. Though Bryan's shot hadn't been deadly, he still had managed to get her pretty badly wounded, and Kai knew she only rarely left the infirmary. And when she did, he had heard that the doctors were after her for it. Were there doctors on the list of employees in the building? He couldn't remember, and the list was with the people in the forest that Boris was incapable of finding.

But that didn't matter. What mattered was that Katyenka was alone. "Katyenka," he said, going directly to the point before she could even scowl at him. He had noticed many of the guards shot him glares, and guessed they actually didn't like Boris' ideas, but was too afraid of the killing-machine he had somewhere. "How did you temporary turn off the cameras?" She stared at him for a moment, refusing to tell. But with a little threatening, that soon changed.

About half an hour later, Kai Hiwatari walked down the halls to two special cells. Over his shoulder was the sack, and in his hand was the dish with his own dinner. The second Emily saw him, she sneered at him as the traitor he once again was. He didn't look at her, but just dropped the sack and the dish in front of Miguel's cell, knowing the boy was the one of the two most likely to share with everyone. "The cameras go back on in about half an hour. Make sure there is no sign of food left when that time comes." Still not looking at them and without saying anymore, Kai Hiwatari left to use yet another night of his life on starving, leaving behind a group of confused, surprised prisoners.

"I'll never understand that guy," Emily mumbled.

* * *

The forest had died out, and now, they were surrounded by enormous fields of grapevines and grass. Without having been looked out for all winter, some of the plants had died out, while others were growing out of control. The oceans of green grass was having the time of their lives, every yellow-green straw being taller than ever before allowed. But this only caused trouble, and soon, the old pickups had to give up the fight against the grass. Their wheels were tangled into balls of torn-up straws, and the unevenness of the ground had caught both of them in holes they were unable to get up from.

Tala stood in front one of the cars, staring at the vehicle as if it was an enemy he was going to destroy with the help of Wolborg. By his side, Bryan stood, leaned against the car with closed eyes, trying to think of a solution to get all their things on with them. But he couldn't think of anything. The only thing that could help them was something used to move in this terrain, and that meant an animal. But how should they get an animal? He wasn't good with them, and the animals that had been in human care were probably already dead. People always said they wouldn't survive in the wild nature because of human influence.

_Influence_. He opened his eyes, a sentence once again bugging him out of his mind. _K... Kinda an influential Helper_. It said something more, but he couldn't figure out what it was. Why couldn't he figure it out? It was probably only because of that small moment of hesitation, and that moment probably meant nothing. Back to thinking about the present problem instead of the past. How where they going to go on with the baggage? Everyone was already carrying what they were able to so that they could get more with them...

A hand suddenly snuck up and touched Tala's forehead, making the redhead jump out of the way in surprise and because the hand was cold. Instead of letting his angry, ice blue punish the car, he glared to meet whoever had touched him's eyes. On the sideline, Bryan's eyes had followed them as Hillary, Matilda and Mystel had walked over to his captain, Mystel being the one who had touched the redhead. "Yes, you definitely have a fever," the blond boy said, crossing his arms.

"I'm fine," the wolf answered, his eyes moving over to the brunette. Hillary had told them. Damn that girl. He was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, so why didn't they just keep the hell out of his way? "So what if I have a fever? It's not like I never have had that before." He turned again; stared at the car like it had all the answers.

The blond once again took his hand out to touch Tala, trying to get the redhead's attention again. But the emerald stared at him with hard eyes and snorted warningly, like a bull, grumbling before attacking. Though Mystel was probably the only one fast enough to get out of the way from the powerhouse called Bryan, he still had very much respect for the other teen's strength. So he let the hand drop, hoping he at least was allowed to talk to the redhead. "It's not healthy, Tala. You are exhausting yourself and destroying your body by working while it tries to get you back on track again. You are the one, who has taken the role of leading upon you, and you are good at it, but you are risking yourself in doing it if you keep yourself at it like this."

The redhead didn't turn, though his face became even more closed and scowling. He sent the emerald a look, which was quite clever since Bryan was beginning to wonder if he should just rid the group. Then, the wolf once again stared at the vehicles with his blue orbs. "Just let me do my own business. I know what I can and can't do."

"We are just worried, Tala," Matilda said, and the worry was actually showed in her eyes. The emerald looked from one to another, as always not really participating in the conversation unless they actually said something to him. Then he watched the monsters, which had fled in under a tree to get away from the sun. They were able to walk in the sun, but it seemed they preferred not to. The citrine walked over past the monsters, blocking the emerald's view for a second before his feet got him on. Brooklyn was on his way away from the others, out over the grass field.

"I don't need your worry," the wolf said grumpily. He was in his abbey-mood, which meant he expected doomsday right around the corner. Then he blinked, and a playful smile grew on the remnants of his scowl. "Sorry, but I really don't need you. I appreciate that you are worried. Didn't know any of you considered me as a friend. I apologize for my behavior from before." The redhead turned around, and he had again managed to confound the poor ones with his mood-swings.

"Ehh... Okay. It's just that... You might overdo it. If you are the leader and you are sick..."

"I have led my team many times while being sick, so don't worry. I had just recovered from having a pretty bad cold when we fled, and I didn't have any trouble then, did I? I just couldn't handle the rain from the day we met the Dark Bladers, so I have had periods of high fever, and though it's nearly a month ago, I haven't had trouble doing my job, have I?"

Bryan had stopped listening. He was... kind of refusing that Tala could be sick; he had learned his absolute superior was supposed to be strong. If the redhead was weak, he wasn't his superior, but the redhead were strong and constant, a solid figure in a slender form. So he ignored their conversation and concentrated on the problem with their baggage...

Then it hit him. _Kinda an influential Helper_. He pushed himself away from the car, and when Tala looked like he was going to react to it, Bryan waved him off, his face that thoughtful one that normally promised development. The wolf continued talking with them, getting smoothly out of the topic about his fever, while the emerald tore up plants some distance from them, leaving a bald spot of dirt. Then, he squatted down and began writing, having to get it down on paper... ehh earth, before he could be sure in his assumptions.

"What are you doing?" It was Hillary, and his eyes immediately shot up to stare at her. She had punished him, and he... still didn't know why. What if she did it again? He looked down again, and then felt her touch his neck with a finger when she got closer. She didn't seem to think about it, but he did. It didn't stop him from working, and he wrote the line _Kinda an influential helper_ in the dirt. Seemingly not satisfied, he erased it again and wrote it differently.

_Kinda  
__an  
influential  
helper_

He looked at it a moment, then suddenly felt the girl's finger trace his whip-scar. He had three all the way up on the neck, and after he had given his vest to the Italian blond, the scars had been revealed. Until now, no-one had seemed to notice them, but now she actually touched them. He didn't know what he was supposed to do with her.

"How did you get that?" she asked, not looking at the dirt anymore. He shivered, again her touches was that... fusion of Boris and his мама. He erased _helper_ and wrote it a little longer down from the rest of the words, making the 'h' a big 'H' instead. Yes, that made sense with the hesitation that didn't fit with his Rook's personality. The sentence had forced him to think a little longer than just saying his name, causing a second of him being out of character.

_Kinda__  
an  
influential_

_Helper_

Then, he turned his head, looking up at her. "Whip," he said shortly, looking down on the dirt, then, he smiled, having solved a puzzle that had been troubling his mind for months. Should he tell Tala? Yeah he should. Though he doubted the redhead would find it that interesting, considering the Rook's behavior last time they had talked. His fused Rook-and-Queen had been shifted over to the other side, unfortunately.

"Do you have any other scars?" she asked, and he looked up at her again. Would she punish him if he didn't show them? He was stronger than her, but he was also stronger than Boris, and... he had never stopped Boris from punishing him... The answer was easy, but... Tala always got angry when he did it. And Bryan didn't understand why Tala reacted like that, cause it was him who had done it anyway. But Bryan nodded to the girl, took her hand away from his neck and took off his yellow T-shirt.

He didn't see her eye widen when she saw the damaged on his back, causing a web of uneven scar tissue to try hiding the mass destruction. He only heard her gasp when she backed away from him, trying to gasp the amount of wounds he had to have had on that back. The skin had been unable to restore itself, not even being near looking like normal flesh. It was a whole landscape of long, straight craters, and he let the T-shirt drop before turning to look at her.

It was obvious she was unable to comprehend it, and he rose from his position on the ground, so that she got a good look on his muscular chest instead. But she shook her head. "May... May I see again?" If she was going to love him, which she was because Tala had challenged her, she had to love all of him. That meant his past too, and his back. And when he obeyed her by walking over and turn, she lifted her hands, trying not to let any of her tears fall.

He cringed in surprise when her fingertips lightly felt over his back, and the movement caused her to take her hand away. He began to doubt it. Was this okay? Boris was the last one who had touched him there, and... that hadn't been good. Was she punishing him again? Then, her whole hand laid flat on his back, before lifting itself a little, again letting the tips of her fingers follow the web, getting herself used to the roughness of the skin and the unnatural bumps an holes. And slowly, he began to feel... comforted by the light, sensible touch. Then, she finally backed away from him, letting him be, feeling a little better about the scar-web. And so, she asked the question of doom.

"What happened?"

"Tala whipped me-"

"Bryan, what the fuck are you doing?" Ugh. Angry superior meant bad. Bad, bad, _bad_. Bryan ducked down, hiding in the tall grass while he searched for his shirt. Behind him, Hillary stared at the redhead, and Tala knew what would come. But he didn't have time; instead, he jumped over and took the T-shirt he had seen on the ground, then throwing it at Bryan. "Take it on, NOW, you freaking idiot." The emerald did what told, looking like a dog getting scolded.

"You _whipped _him?" Hillary screamed, causing the redhead to cringe and look down in embarrassment and hurt. That was something he rarely did, but the brunette girl was too furious to care. But Bryan stood again, walking forward with his 'Protect-Tala'-attitude. But the redhead gripped his arm, stopping him before he did something to Hillary. Then, the wolf lifted his head again, getting back to radiate authority and pride.

"Yes." His voice was cold and empty of feeling, his face an emotionless mask. A known expression for the ones who had known him longest, it being the face they had normally seen. A slight frown. "I asked of you not to dig in the past. Please stop this conversation before we get to the painful part. There are things in life that is just supposed to be forgotten. But of course, if you want to see me cry, just continue." Tala? _Cry? _More people were listening to them, most not knowing what it was about, though they had heard Hillary's scream. But they did know what kind of person Tala was, and that were not one you expected to let anyone see him so vulnerable that he would cry.

"We need some answers, Tala," Hillary said, though she had gotten more quiet now. Though wearing a mask, Tala radiated deep pain and sadness. "It continues to come up... And you can't keep locking something that is hurting so much in. It's obvious you never has talked it thro-"

"Talking is overrated. Why can't you just concentrate on what we are instead of what we have been? I don't even really know you! You expect me to trust a bunch of people where they either are previous opponents who constantly get in my way of victory or folks I just met? If you see me as a friend, that's great! But... just keep out..." The redhead suddenly stopped talking, his eyes getting blurred as he took his hand to his head, getting dizzy because of the fever and stress. "I have to sit down..." he whispered faintly. Why couldn't they just be satisfied and leave him alone?

Bryan gripped him in his arm and dragged him over to one of the cars, people getting out of their way. Opening the door, the emerald placed his captain on the passenger seat, staring at him questioningly, and Tala realized just how serious this situation was. He risked Bryan decided him to be too weak to be his superior, and that meant the emerald either sought Boris out or simply went on with them without anyone having control over him. If it ended with the first, it would be bad for the emerald. If it was the second, no-one could know what happened. If he would just grow into a shadow on the sideline, watching the rest of them live, or if he would be a part of everything, which would cause deaths of probably a big bunch of people.

The ones that were supposed to know the wolf the best, the professional bladers, came to find out what was wrong. They had known the Blitzkrieg-Boys longer, so they had some kind of bigger responsibility... Right? "Tala, are you alright?" Tyson asked, making the redhead grimace at the loudness. Damn that fool! But Tala didn't look away from his teammate, seeing how the gray-haired teen estimated the situation, trying to decide. This was very dangerous.

"I'm fine, for god's sake! Get off my case already!" the wolf growled nonetheless. The emerald looked the rest of the group over, before sighing slightly and closing his eyes. From what the redhead could read on his teammate, the danger was over. He was still the absolute superior. So he turned to the rest of the group, narrowing the blue eyes. "I don't need baby-sitters. But we're going to have a vote for the leadership in the group tomorrow morning. I can't keep being the leader, taking all the decisions out of your hands. Mind to spread the word?" They nodded, no-one disobeying him, though many people still thought the redhead was doing just fine as the leader.

"I have something to show you," Bryan said, distracting the redhead from staring after group, and Tala smiled. The proof that he was still the one who held control over the mindless killing-machine called Kuznetsov. The redhead rose, not letting the dizziness show on him this time as he stood, and he was lead to where Bryan had written in the dirt. "My Rook announced himself with the sentence 'Kinda an influential helper'," he informed. "We owe Kai something, no matter who's side he is on. Remember how he always played his annoying mind games?"

Tala frowned at his words. The redhead had been angry with the slate for the last many weeks, so why did his teammate now bring him up? And what had the sentence anything to do with anything? Bryan had told him he didn't know who his Rook had been and the Rook's important part of his game, so why so suddenly bring it up when the topic was finished? Then, the blue orbs looked down on Bryan's creation.

_Kinda  
an  
influential_

_Helper_

He got it immediately, and was too surprised to react to Bryan's next words. "Also, Ian is in the desert in Egypt. There is a high possibility that he is dead." He was also too surprised to react on Brooklyn, coming walking with the solution on their car-problem, since he came back, dragging five horses behind him with a very complacent and _proud_ look on his face. The horses could carry the luggage in the vehicles.

_K  
a  
i_

_H_

"Might there... be a chance?" the redhead asked, and though it was an emotional question, Bryan was able to answer.

"With Kai Hiwatari, there always is a chance. His problem is that he has the wrong image of who and what he is, having grown up being told he should be his grandfather's successor and that he is the first true Hiwatari in many years, even better than Voltaire Hiwatari. But that's not who he is. He just have to realize it and keep believing it." With that, the emerald went over to help Brooklyn with the horses, leaving his captain paralyzed in surprise.

* * *

The many different odors filled the white kitchen, mixing in to one single delicious scent. The heat was bearable, but only just, being like a hot summer day in Tokyo, Japan. This day, he was doing the meat instead of the vegetables, which gave him the chance of playing with a little bigger knife this time. He enjoyed being in the kitchen, cause it gave him a purpose of his existence. Voltaire would be outraged that his grandson was doing kitchen-chores, but it was him who had locked the slate in to a building with nothing else to do than train.

"Are you enjoying yourself, Kai?" That man was sooo good at entering when no-one needed him. Kai didn't react to being spoken to, not letting the creep get that pleasure. Sure, that meant the slate would let the man mock him, but not acting nor caring was better than letting your feelings control you. Boris was a living, walking proof of that. "Guess you have found your place. Kitchen-boy." Boris' head lays on the chopping-board. Boris' head screams when the knife is raised over it. Boris' head gets cut in half. Another slice of meat ready for cooking.

The slate didn't let the words of Boris confuse him. He knew his place, and he knew he had waited for it for months, no, years. He was supposed to sit beside Voltaire until the man finally ended his days, hopefully dying a painful death in sickness and weakness, like the man feared. Then, the grandson would take his place as the ruler of the world, a world he would shape into his liking. Of course, not being an unkind ruler, but _the_ ruler nonetheless.

"So you give me your silent-treatment again? Well, then. I will kindly tell you that you are not the one whom I'm here for." Oh, you didn't give me the honor to continue hearing your stupid babbling, then? I was really hoping to get _really _pissed off because of you! He heard the man walk away, and finally opened his eyes to watch the purple-haired's back disappear among the many cook with kitchen-knives on their armbands, telling their position. Working in a kitchen... You must be kind of high-ranked, when you cook for meat-loving, stupid soldiers. They gotta love you!

But he saw where Boris was heading. Rajini saw him and smiled, obviously feeling a burning love. Boris, on the other hand, seemed only to be driven by lust, and he saw how the man dragged the woman out and away from the crowded room. He did _not _want to know what the hell they were doing, wherever they went.

Instead, he had suddenly lost every interest in chopping the Boris-heads on his chopping-board, so he slid off over to the wall and turned to walk out of the room. Closing the door behind him, he found suddenly himself face to face with Maxim, the bearded Russian looking at him with angry eyes. Oh, what wouldn't the slate do for even just _one_ friend in this building he was forced to stay in? He didn't like the look in everyone's eyes when he passed them. That even included Emily and Miguel, though he had given them food once. Or twice. That didn't make them forgive him.

"I was looking for you, Kai. I found something very interesting that you might want to hear," the soldier said, his voice cold and arms crossed. Kai wasn't really as interested, which was quite ironic, taking the sentence the full-blooded Russian had decided to use. But the teen kept quiet, though making sure he didn't look weak while doing it. Quietness could be misread as being weak, and it was an art to keep sure that didn't happen.

The slate crossed his arms, looking at the man for a second, thinking of his choices in the situation. Then, he decided to do what wasn't really surprising, and began walking past the man without giving him even a little look. He was stopped by the soldier's arm, the older man's hand hitting the wall as it stopped him from walking off like he always did. The man sneered slightly, and Kai could nearly see the man's arm shake of the tenseness. Anger.

"I don't know what you are playing at, but I don't like it. This is no game, so stop you childish nonsense," the bearded soldier said, and Kai even granted him the honor to watch into the violet eyes when he ducked under the outstretched arm. "There is a connection between your old cell and Bryan's. A fail in the air hole-construction, making you able to talk to each other. Do you think it is a coincidence Bryan came out so smoothly?" The soldier had been right. It really was interesting, and a problem. Big problem. The slate turned, trying to think of a convincing lie.

And it was there, and he was even able to come up with an answer before it was too late. "You are doing yourself a favor, telling me before you made a mistake. See, I dug up some very convincing stuff about your loyalty, and it is so promising that Voltaire and Boris is highly likely to believe me even if you tell them that yes, I did help Bryan and the others escaping. It was a mistake doing it, but it can't be helped now." Maxim wasn't convinced, and Kai knew it.

"And what is this... thing you have dug up?" Maxim asked coolly, crossing his arms as he straightened his body to look even more superior than he already did towards the teen. But the slate was both too proud, too stubborn and in too much danger to risk losing this battle and his mind was working hard on the next part of the lie. He was thinking exactly like he did when he was beyblading, finding the opponents weakness in battle and turning it against them.

"Oh, you know. The kitchen. People tend to... talk." Though still not having a thing in mind, he let his lips widening into a smirk. "When Rajini gets out of the way..." Thank God for Boris showing himself and his relationship with Rajini just now, the Thai seemed like a follower of the resisting group with her stubbornness. "... They say things I'm not supposed to hear. Of course, they mind me, too, but..." He watched as the normally solid, immoveable soldier began to fall, getting uneasy and shifting his eyes. The slate was going in the right direction, and he got the lie he needed. Taking a risk, he made some assumptions on people and places.

"The cook called Filip said something interesting about the research center." This specific cook was a good friend of Maxim's, Kai had found out. "Something about a hidden room in the lower levels, or something. Though I'm unable to get out of this building, and I can't be sure since I haven't been in the laboratories, I'm able to recognize the voice of an uncertain man, talking about the last hope for the world in the form of... Well, destruction, it might be. A wea-"

"Silence, for God's sake, I get it!" The soldier had been unable to stop the outburst, too tense and nervous to stop himself from yelling. He looked nearly afraid, afraid that this secret might get revealed, and Kai didn't even nod a good bye when he left. As always, the scarf _whooshed_ behind him, the mysterious, tough, and yet unbelievably vulnerable, teenager, who let everything of him stay hidden on his inside.

He went back up to his cell, wondering what he should waste his time with. Since he didn't want to read right now, there only was one other option for him, and he took up his black beyblade to go down to the lab-like thing he trained in now, away from the rest of the prisoners. In some way, it seemed like it was to make him feel lonely, away from humans and anyone, but he didn't see their reasons. He had already been away from everyone in many months by not talking to anyone, was he supposed to break because of two more months like that or something?

He got into the room with Black Dranzer in his pocket, and instantly, his instincts told him he had made a mistake previously that day. And that something was wrong. He looked around in the semi-dark room before trying to shrug it off. He had many of those paranoid experiences through the days, knowing he had so many enemies in this place. But until now, he had survived, even without getting hurt or accused by his enemies, so he was beginning to feel annoyed every time the feelings kicked in. The only thing it helped was getting him to feel uneasy.

He walked over to the computer, not bothering with turning the lights on, certain that nothing was going to harm him. Besides, he saw well enough in the dark, and it was only an extra challenge to himself, beating an opponent he barely was able to see. The machine which should launch the enemy beyblade was connected to the computer, making him able to set the difficulty to his liking. The launching-machine itself was tall and quite unstable and very heavy, cause it was filled with electronics and cogs to make it able to blade, but some steel-wires connected to the wall behind it made sure it wasn't going to fall.

Kai leaned over the screen of the computer, its bright light making him temporary blind when he turned away in the darkness to find his place on the opposite side of the launching-machine. The red light in the top changed to yellow, then green, a whole little stoplight. As the lamp turned green, he pulled his one hand back and launched the black blade with the words "Let it rip!"

Over on the other side of the stadium, a dark-red blade flew out of the launching-hole on the machine, charging directly for Black Dranzer with an amount of power that was very likely to leave both him and his blade crashed after a single hit. Guiding his black blade out of the way, the slate sought for a way out of the situation. He couldn't keep dodging, especially not when the darkness in the room made him unable to see the thing he was dodging from. The black blade only barely avoided the red one a second time, and Kai could feel his irritation over the situation build.

Then, his mind drifted off to previous battles he had had, seeking for one where he had been extremely outnumbered in pure brute force. Getting the blade to dodge once more, he saw the red beyblade make a wide turn before attacking again, and the movement was so familiar Kai got the idea. His battle against Rick from PPB All Starz in the last championship tournament. The time where he had borrowed Max's technique for survival.

Black Dranzer stopped moving, until the enemy beyblade met it head-on. Kai was pushed back by the pressure, but then took a step forward, following his blade's movement as it was pushed back and then, making a nice turn, hit the red blade with great force. The slate was absolutely focused on the battle, the red blade coming in to land another attack. Pushed back, then one step forward. The enemy blade was getting weak, and not interested in wasting his time, the slate set Black Dranzer on full power, kicking the other blade out of the stadium with full force. The total battle only lasted a minute or two. Boring... Hopefully, it could impress his grandfather when he came the next day...

He moved to the computer again, hating the fact that it was unable to get on Brooklyn's level. Tyson normally won for his originality in the battles, and the computer was unable to do that too, but Brooklyn rarely put his mind into the game. It was purely because the computer was unable to get to Brooklyn's skill-level that Kai couldn't get the pleasure of beating up a Brooklyn-clone, since the computer was as incapable as using feelings in battle as the citrine.

Changing the difficulty to the absolute top, with both power, balance and speed at a scaring level, Kai turned again, making himself ready for the battle. He could lose this time... though it was unlikely. Again, red light turned into green, and the slate fired his blade into the darkness, immediately getting the prey in the hunt that was going on down in the stadium. The violet eyes shot back and forth, following the two blades in the chase, and this time, the enemy blade was bright blue. Getting tired of playing along, Kai made his blade stop, and tipped it. Making Black Dranzer a ramp for the enemy-blade, the blue one died as a cause of its own powers and shot into the wall behind the machine.

The slate heard a snap, and looked up as the launching-machine began moving, three of the steel-wires on one side of the machine having been cut. By the beyblade? Might be. The slate backed away and was just about to turn and run when another snap was heard, and in a moment of damn curiosity, Kai halted a second see what had happened. A second getting his doom, as he heard his head crash to the floor while his whole left arm and shoulder was on fire.

Breathing... Hurtful... Damn it. He could hear his breathing be rough and shaking, and was pretty sure his ribcage had cracked. It felt like that... Was it the blade that had done it?... Maybe... Where was his left arm?... He... couldn't feel it.

Slowly, to keep it was painless as possible, he turned his head to the side to look for the missing arm, but his cheek met with cold iron even before his neck rotated halfway around. His eyes opened, unfocused as a cause of the hit to his head, but still trying to focus on the damaged that might have been caused. The big, heavy metal-block laid over his whole left arm, and though he didn't know the amount of damage, he was pretty sure the arm was absolutely crushed, seeing as the top of the machine laying over it was connected to the floor on the other side of the arm. His ribcage, on the other hand, was 'only' cracked. The machine had a recess right where his chest was, and the only problem was that the machine was leaning over towards him, causing him to feel an enormous pressure on his body and stressing his heart, which was placed nearly directly under the edge of the machine.

It was impossible to breath.

It was also leaning towards his left leg, as far as he could see, but the pain was too concentrated on the arm and chest that the leg didn't matter. He didn't even know if it hurt. Unable to think straight, the slate lifted his right hand and tried to push the weight away. Since the machine was heavy enough to crush his whole arm, it wasn't possible. Letting the arm drop over his head in exhaustion, he realized that he was bleeding from having hit the floor.

It was just then he realized he couldn't stay alive if he laid there. No matter how much his mind hated it, he was in extreme need of help, and the only help he could get was Boris and his doctors. His eyes had shut as his conscious began to drift off, but he forced them open again.

And shadow moved towards the door and out of the room, but if it was a friend, they would have tried to help him, so he didn't cry for help. The figure looked big... Muscular... A dizzy smirk planted itself on Kai's face. Seemed he had pushed Maxim a liiittle too far earlier...

Again closing his eyes, he was ready to give up as the pressure from the machine got worse, ready to crush him and end it every moment. He hadn't imagined dying this way. Die as a course of his own game, yeah, die like that was sure. And die as a course of his own mistakes was sure too, since... he hadn't made anything else than mistakes in this life, so he was forced to die as a course of one... But... Under a machine in the hell-castle led by the creepy uncle he hated because he got too big a threat for this uncle's soon-to-be murderer? That scenario wasn't what he had expected to die to...

Something was buzzing... It disturbed his sleep... Get away...

Opening the violet eyes again and kicking his mind to start again, he realized it was his blade, Black Dranzer, who had survived the crash of the machine and still was spinning at high speed. It had moved on its own, settling itself beside his ear to get him awake. Was he still able to control it? There was the emergency-button over at the wall... Was he able to hit it? Hope...fully... His grandfather came tomorrow... had to...

Concentrating his mind on the button he only barely was able to see, he stopped gasping for air for a second. Then, he sent Black Dranzer towards it with the weakest voice he had ever talked with, hearing the blade destroy the glass surrounding the button. He didn't see it. Instead, he closed his eyes again, feeling the punishment of stopping to breath as his body began craving him to take deeper, faster breaths than before. Deep breaths was impossible. Fast breaths too painful. So he just closed his eyes again. Fuck that. Fuck the button. Fuck Boris and Voltaire and Tala and Tyson. Fuck everyone... F_uck__... No, not fuck her..._

_He dropped._

_Fell into the dark abyss._

_The pain stopped._

_Here, there was no pain._

_No pain._

_He simply fell._

_Fell on for an eternity._

_He knew this darkness._

_Soon, he would wake up, and meet Boris' ugly face._

_He hit the ground hard, but it didn't cause him pain. Still, the pain was not to be felt. He didn't bother opening his eyes, just laid there, on something in somewhere because of something. He had lost track of what had happened, but knew that his chest and arm... were in pain. Or had been. He was certain he was dead. Now, he would know if religion were true by opening his eyes and meet hell or not meet hell._

_So he did._

_Opened his eyes._

_There was nothing around him._

_Only darkness._

_Forever darkness._

_This had to be death. No surprise there. Death was nothing, absolutely nothing. Fun, how people imagined the weirdest things while he now saw that everyone was totally wrong. Slowly getting to his feet, he found out he couldn't move his left arm. That was the one he had gotten crushed, right? Getting his arm crushed... sounded familiar._

_Taking a step forward._

_This was going to be very lonely... Living a deathtime in this darkness. And a deathtime was probably forever. Maybe this actually was hell, trying to make him insane and in deep agony because of loneliness? Why was that the worst everyone could think of?_**(2)**

_Light._

_A small fire grew._

_Deep, warm red colors._

_Love._

_Growing and surrounding him._

_But it didn't touch him. _

_A small piece of blackness was between the fire and him._

_After having had a look down at the darkness that had trapped him from the fire, from the love, he looked up again. A woman with creamy-white hair was looking at him with deeply sad eyes appeared from the flames. She was majestic and held her head beautifully, a golden crown keeping the hair away from her face. A jade sat on the crown, a jade in the same, deep-green color as her Asian-looking eyes. Her dress was very small, only barely covering her breasts and hips, but she was still able to show her pride despite this. The dress was in a deep red color, seeming to be one with the flames around her._

_It was her._

She_ stood in front of him._

_He knew it._

_And he smiled._

_But in her eyes, it wasn't the joy of seeing him again that was. Instead, it was tears. Crystals fell down her cheeks, and he wanted to walk over an comfort her, but the darkness was in the way. She closed her beautiful, sad eyes, a few more tears falling, and then, she turned her head to him in denial. The shock bound him tighter to the spot than the darkness was ever able to. He stared at her with wide, violet eyes as the rest of her body turned with her head._

_And she walked away._

_When she disappeared in the flames, the darkness rose from its bed at his feet, and the red flames turned into black. Once again, he was in total darkness, the now black flames didn't provide him any light._

_New green eyes stared at him, these with joy._

_But these were neither warm nor friendly._

**

* * *

(1) **Just wanted to point out the irony of this statement, when you look at what he have done and what profit he gets for doing it. Though I don't think he think higher of himself than the 'inhuman humans' he watched, only that he hated them...

**(2) **Just wanted to answer myself ^^ Because loneliness is the worst mental torture you can experience. Speaking with experience, like most of you reader just also do. Though, that would be reading with experience... something...

* * *

Done with that one too ^^ Kai... got... smashed o.O Eehhh... Yeah. Eehhm... no comments ^^ Poor arm, though... No, I said, no comments! Damn it!

Anyway, lovely ending xD Or something. Whatever! Enjoy in joy, cause I enjoyed making it, it brought me joy ^^ (Stop talking, you make it look stupid -.-')


	13. The past and the present

HAHA, BACK, and I are so good at keeping my deadline that I... I... don't really know, I'm just proud of myself ^^ And I have decided I will start out with the story called The Book, a story set 14 years after the last tournament, with focus on Bryan's life (though... He will only be physically present in the story... in about three or four chapters...), when I'm done with this story I have here.

Disclaimer: No, don't own... Ehm... Just no. Have nothing else to say... yet I still talk... I have OC's and this plot, but all my faves... are someone else's, and it's annoying...

Reviews:

None. Guess you're busy, aren't ya? xD

I have a question! What is an earth worker? I have no idea, stupid, not useful dictionaries! -.-'

* * *

The past and the present

* * *

As usual, fevers had perfect timing when they were in his body. Just when things go well and things were required of him, they would occur, make it hard for him to do the job. But when he finally give in to their stupid, persisting hold on his body, and finally let someone else lead, the fever decide to disappear.

Tala woke up this morning, feeling unbelievably good. The vote was today, to decide the council of people who were going to lead them. They had been comfortable with him the last month, or else, he would have set up the vote before. But now, the fever had raged his body for so long he had a hard time thinking straight, and he had made a lot of decisions that influenced the whole group without taking in their opinion. But the fever and the feeling of becoming a dictator, the stress about his past because they knew he kept something hidden, it all got too much. And now, the fever had vanished, and if it had done that before, he could have continued to lead! He hated fevers...

Fate was obviously against the redhead, and he rose from his 'bed' and walked out of the shelter. It was not normal for Bryan to still sleep at this time of the day, it must be about 6 or 7 am, but it was only good for the emerald to sleep in every once in a while. Though Tala remembered with pain the first time Bryan had slept in, and had woken up at 8 am. He had been devastated, certain Tala was going to punish him, and had acted like a loyal dog who knew it had done a great mistake, managing to drive all his teammates crazy.

At least that was a habit the gray-haired had gotten from when he realized the second time he had done it that Tala, unlike Boris, didn't really care when he got out of bed. Of course, that didn't make him change his habits but he didn't crawl at Tala's feet anymore. It was... quite uncomfortable when it happened. Felt like... a wrong kind of power.

The redhead stood outside the shelter, looking the wide, grassy plains over. It was beautiful and seemed natural, as not just one but hundreds of different grasses covered the plains, and small trees were beginning to fight themselves up, one day getting up over the top of the long straws. This didn't look like it had for... half a year ago. In fifty years, this probably would end as a forest, getting anyone who looked at it the same feeling of might as the old rainforests. Tala could already imagine the tall trees rising with glory, the leaves whistling in the wind, how the animals would live there in peace, away from the stress of the humans now dead.

An animal-like snort got the redhead to look to the side, and his eyes moved over to the five horses Brooklyn had brought them just a day before. He had never even touched a horse before, not to mention stood beside one, and he didn't really know what to think of them. But Tala had always liked animals, and had always socialized with every single one he had the change to meet. The abbey hadn't had any animals, so... every animal was very special to him.

He moved closer to the horses. They were all already awake, but for some reason, they didn't mind the bind Brooklyn had given them the day before. When he moved over to them, though, one of them eyed him suspiciously, and the redhead bowed his head in acknowledgment of the big animal. It took a few seconds, and then the horse took its head down again and continued eating the grass. After a little while, the redhead was by the horse's side, stroking it down the neck. It seemed bigger than it had when he was further away, but it didn't scare him away. And the way the horse looked at him made him feel safe. The other horses soon found him too, and the wolf ended up getting cornered by five enormous, multicolored bodies.

"Didn't know you were a lover of animals."

The wolf turned his head, still stroking a hand down the bodies in front of him, feeling the muscles in the forelegs and the softness and smoothness of the fur. Brooklyn stood there, his head slightly tilted, and for once, the face was serious. No lazy smile was covering his face as he moved closer, and immediately, Tala's new friends wanted the citrine's attention instead of the wolf's. The redhead decided not getting annoyed at the other teen when the horses began to surround him. The prodigy was the master of animals, so it was no wonder they preferred him.

"I haven't been able to be with animals for most of my life," Tala answered, watching as the other teen by some miracle was able to divide his attention equally on all the five heads. His smile had come the second one of the animals had reacted to his presence, the love clear in those rarely-feeling eyes. The unmovable got moved by animals, and no, Tala really didn't bother getting annoyed.

The apatite eyes shifted to the redhead before again caress the horses. Though, the apatites were suddenly touched by melancholy. "Sad..." Yeah, Tala just realized how bad that sentence most had sounded for the other. Not being able to be with animals? For most of his life? It had to sound like the end of the world. Then, the eyes brightened again when a bird came over to him, with a big amount of others soon to follow. They eyed Tala suspiciously before letting themselves be smiled at by Brooklyn, chirping at him and setting themselves on his shoulders or on the horses long necks.

Apatites moved to Tala again, and again they were serious. "Sorry for taking them away from you, then." It sounded like an honest apology, but Tala just shrugged, the sight of the white one surrounded by the many animals was a surprisingly... happy sight. But the happiness vanished at the white's next words. "Bryan is going to break soon."

"What do you mean?" Going to break? What's that supposed to mean? Bryan was about the most... Well, kind of solid, unmovable in another way than any others because of his... problem. Bryan was the last one Tala would expect to break, while a lot of the others was facing a very hard time, living in the wild, losing friends and family, getting trained into soldiers. Cause... That was kinda what they were doing. Many were slowly crumbling apart. "In what way do you mean break? How do you know? … Why are you even saying it?" Oh... So he was in that mood at the moment. Loud and not good at secrets. That had always been Ian's favorite- and Spencer's hating-mood.

"It's more like bursting," the citrine answered, not getting surprised at Tala's mood. He was acting like Tyson, but nothing surprised the white teen. He just continued stroking the animals he loved, though not even knowing most of them. "You will know when it happens. I just want you to be careful and call for help when he gets enough." Brooklyn turned his head and smiled as if everything was just great. Typical Brooklyn. "Bryan is under extreme pressure at the moment. I don't know why or what is bothering him, I don't know when it will happen, but I do know that it is probably going to cause death."

"That doesn't explain why you tell me this." There was venom in the redhead's words, and one of the horses turned its head at him and lays it ears back flat. He was quite sure it was saying 'If you threaten my boyfriend, I'll kill you' in its own way... Though trying to keep serious despite the annoying mood he had, the wolf couldn't to stop himself from laughing. That even seemed to confuse Brooklyn a little, and Tala got serious again. "Tell me how you know."

"I just like Bryan, that's all. He is quite important for the future, and if he wasn't here, I know we would end up getting found and killed by Boris. As long as Kai doesn't get his way, we are safe... Though that's beside the point. So, point is that I respect Bryan and know that he is going to need you, so I wouldn't like him to end up killing you when he breaks." Tala stared at him with narrow eyes, quite sure he was avoiding the second question on purpose. And that had become the most interesting question. "I have visions," Brooklyn then says with a shrug.

As it had happened with the monsters, Tala immediately believed that he said the truth, no matter how stupid it actually sounded. Yeah, he reminded very much of Tyson right now. "Really? That's cool!" Loud. He had probably woken up half of the people they were traveling with now. But Brooklyn just looked at him, the lazy smile turning into an amused one. Quieting down, at least knowing he was too loud, Tala moved closer, like they were two girls, about to share a very interesting, very important secret. "Tell me something that's going to happen," he whispered.

Brooklyn seemed to think a second... Then nodded. "You are going to start the vote today. When you do, Bryan is going to suggest Emma, the girl who Bryan was about to shoot when you argued with her, as a possible council-member for his group." Tala raised an eyebrow at this one, about to ask why. "He'll claim she has leader-abilities under her ego, and she just have to drop the ego to be good for the job," Brooklyn answer the unspoken question.

The redhead nodded, absolutely unconvinced about the words, but decided to try it out. That was going to be his proof that the citrine had said the truth about his visions. But people were still waking up, so why not continue to ask... just for fun? "Tell me more..." he said with an amused gleam in his eyes. "Something even more important. Can you see Boris' death? Or Voltaire's? Or... Another's death?" So it was amusing to hear about deaths... More interesting.

"I... don't know." Brooklyn frowned, and it looked... weird isn't the word for it... odd isn't either... WRONG. Not fitted on that face of his. "I can't force them upon me most of the time... Oh, yes, I just remembered a vision I had a while ago! I think it was when I got shot..." The lazy smile was back, and the wrong frown was gone. Good, cause Tala was just about to go nuts of fright about that frown. But now, the citrine had trailed off, as if he had forgotten the redhead was there and had asked him something and just continued petting his animals. But just as Tala was about to say something, Brooklyn seemed to wake up and smiled again. "Sorry." Still not continuing... He was being annoying on purpose. "What? … Oh, yeah." Lazy smile broadening. "Well, Kai is going to kill Boris. Or Voltaire. Or you. Or Tyson. Or he is going to kill both Voltaire, you and Tyson and then go on a rampage with the knife he had killed you all with to find Boris. It's one of those options."

"Okay..." Tala raised an eyebrow. What was he supposed to react with? Surprise? Fear? Though... He wasn't sure...

"That's not right." Bryan seemed to have woken up and had been looking for his superior. Tala was about to ask, but... Bryan was good at reading his superiors. "Kai can't kill anyone. That's why it's not right." The green eyes looked long at the citrine, trying to locate lie in the white teen. The white just reacted by shrugging, not really caring.

"Future can be changed in a second. Special people are able to do that. I wouldn't have accepted Kai's challenge at the BEGA-tournament if I knew I would lose, but I..." Ugh, obviously a painful subject. At least, it was the citrine himself who had begun it, not them. "But as it is now, Kai's risk of killing someone is quite big. People are awake."

The sudden statement dumbfounded Tala until he realized what Brooklyn was talking about, and he turned. About everyone was awake, getting breakfast ready or taking the shelters down. A lot was watching them, and Tala, who had gotten back to caressing the skin of the Brooklyn-centered horses, turned and called everyone up. "I love to see him speaking," Brooklyn said to the emerald, who watched the other one confused before walking over to the wolf.

After taking a small breath, Tala began speaking. "I'm not going continue as a leader. Instead, I call to a vote. You have had a month to think it over, and I want people to suggest the ones they want up themselves, and come with the reasons they have for wanting this person as the leader of your group. Think past good friends. Does everyone understand?" Getting a nod from everyone near him, Tala continued. "Any questions? Raise your hand if there is..."

A couple of people raised their hand, and Tala had already guessed the question. He nodded to one of the younger boys called Pete, a kid he like for his honesty and found annoying for his loudness. Though not as loud as some... "Why don't you just continue?" Yeah, exactly that question. Few of them knew that he had had a fever most of the time, and that was good, because he didn't want them to see him as weak. But he just crossed his arms darkly.

"Because I'm a dictator, who doesn't ask anyone what they want to do. Up until know, I have simply been the one who has had the overview to make the foundation of a community. Now, I will give you a chance to shape it into what you want. That is also why I'm not going to be the one to get chosen for my own group. It's in my nature to take the total lead of any group I get into, which means I wouldn't stop by a know from the other members of the council. Any other questions?" Bryan raised an eyebrow. The wolf didn't have a reason to go that far in the explanation, unless he wanted to ruin his own reputation. That might just be what he was up to...

No-one raised their hands this time, since they only had had that one question. People had been more than satisfied with him because of his calmness and because he had socialized with everyone and made sure he knew them and they knew him personally. So they had ended up liking him, even if he had secrets and got into a dark mood very often.

"Alright. We'll start out with the group with the people who take care of sheltering." The redhead's eyes sought out to Brooklyn, who seemed to listen from his place between his animals. "Raise your hand and say who you want up, if five people in the group approve without being a friend of the person, the person will be set up as a candidate." He looked back to the people at his front, but no-one raised their hands, afraid to make the first move. After a few seconds, Tala crossed his arms again with an annoyed look, and a hand rose outside the crowd. "Bryan?"

"Emma. She has the abilities as a leader, if she gets rid of her egoistic thoughts." The wolf's blue eyes went back to the citrine, hiding the surprise. Tala had believed Brooklyn's abilities... until he had said that about Bryan... And now Bry had shown the truth...

"Thanks, Bry. Those who will give her a chance to be a leader, step forward." Two persons did, but that wasn't enough. "Rejected." And yet, it _was_ enough. Suddenly, people wanted to choose people, even people they didn't really like. Tala tried hard not to smile at his emotionless teammate. Seemed he really had a reason to thank the guy.

The last got chosen, and the council was settled. But Tala got an idea, and it was important. "Wait a second! We are missing to select a member," he shouted out over the crowd. People were just about to go back to their own business, but this was an important part. "My last decision as a dictator! There are going to another member of the council, who is not going to decide anything, but make sure none of the rest is too sloppy or argue too much, and one who is able to give advises. Basically, one who makes sure something happens, and what happens isn't completely stupid."

"Then... it must be a smart person... who doesn't necessarily have leader-abilities, right?" Falak asks. She had been given the position as the leader of the hunters, and she had just showed the reason. She was obviously smart, or at least sharp. And Tala was quite sure she already knew where it was heading. Her eyes floated over by Bryan, who had placed himself on the sideline in the front, ready to jump forth if something was going bad for the captain.

"I recommend my teammate, Bryan," he said, looking serious and solid. The emerald reacted with widening his eyes, then narrowing them, trying to understand where Tala was going with this. Why would he want his teammate, brain and bodyguard away from himself? "My reasons are that he is, by far, the cleverest of us here. He has no reasons to choose one of the council as a favorite as he aren't friends with any of them or will be friends with them, and is unbribeable**(1)**. And because he was the one who gave me all the ideas and is my personal adviser, so I know he's good." Yeah, if Bryan had been confused before, know it was even worse, trying figure out what Tala was planning.

There were silent. People guessed they had to do the same as before, walk forward to get him the change of getting selected, but he wasn't the one with the best reputation. For a good reason, but it was undeniable that he was the one who had given Tala advises, and that Tala had listened to everything he had said. But was it clever... To let him?

Brooklyn hadn't been a part of anything until now. He had only voted because Tala had forced him to, and he hadn't really cared, probably already knowing the outcome of the vote. The redhead was just about to say that Bryan had been rejected when the citrine took a step forward, smiling his lazy smile. "I approve of him."

"Aren't you considered a friend of his?" Tala questioned, but Brooklyn just shrugged while Bryan looked at his captain like he was completely, honestly insane to think so. He might actually just be. "Guess not," the redhead shrugged, looking over the rest. "Anyone else wanna approve of Bryan?" Fighting off his triumphant smile, the wolf watched as four others stepped forward.

In the end, Bryan was selected as the adviser for the 'council'. Now, Tala could at least sleep in peace, knowing they would go in more or less the right direction.

* * *

_The black flames had died out at last, but the green eyes still stared at him. They reminded him of the woman in the red dress... or at least, it was the exact same shade of green, the exact same form. Slightly narrow, oval pupils, a bit like a predator, the shape of the eyes were Asian, but Kai was uncertain whether these were male or female. The woman had, obviously, been female. And there was one more severe difference between them. She... _She_... was pure good. _

_These eyes that stared at him from the nothingness of what he still was sure was death were evil. Or so it seemed at first, at least. The more he stared at them, the more certain of seeing pain in those eyes he was. The loneliness... that he knew he had seen before in another pair of eyes, but he didn't remember when it was or who had sent them to him. But he had no doubt that there was no good intent in these eyes, no matter how much the bearer seemed to hurt._

_Again looking away from the eyes, his thoughts went back to the same kind of nothingness that surrounded him. He didn't even know if he actually stood, or if he was still falling down from wherever he came from... or if he just flew around in no shape or form. He was sure he had only been there in minutes after he had been in the center of the black flames, and yet, his thought was so much clearer than they had been just those few minutes ago. That made him wonder if it really only was a few minute ago... or if it was an hour? … Maybe it was nothing. Why should time be a part of this place, when space obviously wasn't? He didn't even feel cold or hot, didn't know if he stood or fell!_

_His thoughts began drift, and a journey began... He thought about Rei, how he died, and... and... The im_age of Rei fought the nothingness away. The neko-jin was small at first, but then grew bigger... and bigger... And what seconds ago just was a picture that might just fit in his pocket became a scene he was part of. Rei sat by the bank of a small river, his legs down in the water. Behind him, tall mountains la_id, and since Kai never had been in his village, the slate decided it had to b_e the ones around his village.

The neko did_n't take notice of Kai, who found it very unlike the teen's normal behavior. The slate took a step forward, but he didn't move an inch from the place he was standing... He looked down and found himself standing, or more like flying, an inch over the grass. But... The slate sighed and took another step, only to not move once again... As if he was on a treadmill... That meant he was still nothing, though he was watching... something... he looked bac_k at the neko as Rei took his feet out of the water and rose. The raven took the shoes on again, but kept his eyes at the water. The golden orbs were filled to the brim with sadness and loss, something never before seen in those pools.

"Rei!" That voice was a well-known one, and Lee came out from the trees a little longer down the river. His hair was slightly longer, and he was a little less groomed, but else, he looked like himself. Also Rei seemed a little less neat than usual, which didn't fit with his normal personality. "I have found something interesting. Come with me..." Rei nodded, and the sadness disappeared behind a mask when the other neko had shown.

As soon as the raven had nodded that, the lion disappeared between the bushes again. It took a small amount of time before the other neko-jin followed, as he seemed to think the tail-like hairdo needed to be fixed – and he was right thinking that, since it nearly had creased up – but it was more like just an excuse to let the sadness fill him again. Then, the tiger began moving forward... _And Kai didn't follow. He was left to stare at some annoying bushes and some annoying water, unable to move with the help from his feet thanks to an invisible treadmill._

_I want to get over to them!_

_The picture moved, and suddenly, Kai was merely a few feet away from the two nekos. Th_e two was bowing over a big boulder, which had been cut by something... It didn't seem weird. "What do you think it is?" Lee asked nonetheless. _A cut in a stone, maybe? Just maybe?  
_

But, for some reason, Rei looked at it in recognition. "I know!" Lee looked at him with surprise, and Rei grinned at him. "You would recognize the weapon that had cut you, too. I'm quite sure I know exactly what this is. Last time I saw something like this was at my first world-tournamen..." The wor_ds reminded Kai of the last time they had seen each other, and the scene vanished into nothingness again, before a new mini-sized picture began growing..._

_This time, he stood in front of a mirror o_f himself from half a year ago and the neko-jin. "Do whatever you want," the teen with the slate hair said, looking as if he didn't care at all.

"Well then... Bye..." The second the neko turned his back to him, feelings shot through the eyes of the other version of Kai, and he muttered to himself. _Kai was unable to hear what it was exactly, but he remembered eno_ugh to know it was about his birthday that was going to be in a few days. Rei wa_lked directly through the shadow-Kai, whic_h caused him to shudder lightly, and he opened his mouth just as the Kai lying on the ground raised his voice slightly. "Happy birthday, then, Kai..." Of course, neko-jins had better hearing than others...

_By just thinking the word birthday, it reminded him of anoth_er scene. The Bladebreakers was togehter in Tyson's dojo, Rei about to leave. It was Kai's first birthday with the group, but it didn't get celebrated. Cause the rest didn't know. And the fact that Rei decided to go back to China right now was... extremely ironic. But mirror-Kai didn't let them know, since mirror-Kai just stood in the other end of the room with arms crossed and eyes closed.

"Promise you'll get back to your birthday! I don't want to miss it!" Max exclaimed, but the younger Kai leaning against the wall didn't look bothered at all. Birthday was for weaklin_gs, Kai remembered thinking, since he had never in his life had a really successful birthd-_

A well-known woman leaned towards the bars to the cell. Inside, a little boy with slate and near-black hair looked at her with no emotions showed on his face. It was not like the little boy that had been taken a picture of just a month before, this one didn't seem to like this lavender-haired woman in front of him, no, instead it actually seemed it hate her. Hate her to the end of the world. An_d Kai was absolutely agreeing with his younger image in the matter of that woman._

"Happy birthday, Kai," the woman smiled. The little boy just looked at her before going back to ignoring her. He had been in and out of the abbey ever since he remembered, whenever he should go on 'a vacation' by his grandfather. Of course, both mom and dad knew what had happened when he was on vacation. But they hadn't done anything against it, probably because of fear towards 'grandpa'. And now, Kai had lived there for a month straight, since his dad had... disappeared. Boris had easily gotten his weak sister into letting Voltaire have full custody over the kid.

"Where's Asachi?" mini-Kai asked, unable to ignore his mother for too long. The woman continued to smile, as she was about to talk about her beloved brother, Boris Balkov. He was about ten years older than her.

"Boris took her." It sounded as if it was the greatest news in the world, as the stupid mother didn't know she had led her daughter into her deat_h. But Kai already knew it, and th_e little Kai knew it, and he jumped up and tried to hit his mother, keeping the tears out of his eyes. You got punished for tears in this place. So mini-Kai had promised never to cry again, though he was expressing a lot of feeling by the jumping and punching at her despite what he wanted.

"How could you? How could you let him take her?" the boy-Kai screamed, but the woman jumped away from the bars, out of reach for the kid's short arms. In the back of the cell, there was another kid, and moved forward and out of the shadows of the cell. It was about the first time he had reacted to anything the younger had done, and he gripped the outraged, small boy. This kid was taller, broader, more muscular and blond, two years older than Kai was.

"Calm down, Kai," the younger model of Spencer demanded, hiding his fear. Becau_se K__ai knew he hadn't changed personality ever since he had been in the abbey for three weeks straight. Even now... in whatever now was, he was still keeping his feelings on the inside, never showing more than he wanted, never hinting when he was stressed out and about to break, never letting himself realize how much he doubted his own decisions and his own worth._

_The slate didn't know where the thoughts came from, since it wasn't something he... normally thought. But it all hit him when he saw the fe_aring look in small Spencer eyes because the outraged kid the blond clenched in his arms never showed his feelings or weakness. The kid had already begun playing his mind game, which nearly could drive the young Spencer insane because of the complexity of it. The woman turned and walked away as fast as she could, fearing her cute, little boy. It was the last time, on his birthday, that they ever met.

_Show me... The cause of both's death._

_Two pictures grew side by side, forming a double-scene. When they had grown enough, Kai was watchi_ng two Boris'. In one of them, sat in front of a desk. In the other, he was walking in the snowy wilderness with a freezing, two-year-old at his side. She had no coat on, was shivering madly and tried to get out of Boris' clenching grip, a_nd Kai was angered by this fact. How the hell could he treat his niece like that? Asachi had always been the slate's little... Star._

Boris behind the desk sat cross-armed, waiting for something... A door opened, and the man's sister took a step inside, smiling to her oh, so beloved big brother. "What can I do you, Boris?" she said, and he answered her smile.

"I just wanted to see you. Here, take a sweet," Boris said, nodding towards the bowl on his desk. Once again, he gave her a nice smile, and it broadened when she took it in her mouth. "You see, Voltaire has decided you are a pain, always wanting to see your son and daughter. Take another one."

"But they are my kids!" the woman said, grimacing as she took the next in to her mouth. "They are tasting... bitter, Boris, you know I don't like-" This caused the purplehaired man to sneer in irritation, the smiling facade fainting.

"I don't care what you like! Take another one," he offered, but she shook her head, though she had eaten the others. After a while, though, she couldn't deny her brother, and another one was put in her mouth. "Voltaire thinks you are a problem, so you are getting eliminated. I just tell this to warn you not to trust anyone associated with Voltair-"

"Look over there, Asachi!" Boris on the other side said, pointing forward. The girl didn't look, but still tried to get out of the too hard grip in her hand, as it was hurting her small fingers. They were far away from civilization, far away from everything. Not a single house was in sight on the white mountain, and it seemed there was a storm on its way.

Boris seemed annoyed at the girl's lack of interest in his pointing, and he got his punishing-look on. "U-u-u-u-uncle, I-I'm fr-fr-fr-freez-z-zing," she complained, whispering nearly unsoundly. There were tears in her eyes, but like her brother in the other picture, she didn't let herself cry in front of this man. Boris made a violent movement, finally getting her attention to what he had been trying to show her. It was a small pole of iron, barely visible over the tall drifts of snow. "W-w-w-what is tha-that, u-u-uncle?"

"Your death," the man answered, and the little girl, so incredible young, looked up at him with scared eyes. She was a very smart one, exactly as her brother, but she was far less naïve. And death was something she was familiar with, even if she hadn't yet lost anyone to the last journey. Boris dragged the now fighting, little girl to the pole and gave her on some weird-looking handcuffs. "Bye." The sound of a chopper, and Boris turned to-

BANG. In the other scene, the woman fell to the ground, her whole body arched backwards in cramps. Her whole body twisted and turned, her eyes wide with shock and the beginning of nothing when she got too consumed of the pain that racked through her body. Boris pressed a button to a machine, like when you call a secretary.

"Get her out of my sight."

A bunch of guards came with a stretcher, and seeing the still living body, they hesitated their actions. "Are we supposed to shoot her?" one of them asked. The question was clear in his face, how were they supposed to get a body, which was still living and twisting in its pain, out to the mass graves?

"Why waste bullets on something that already is doomed to die? Are you an idio-"

A terrifying cry from the other scene. Asachi fought against the handcuff as Boris went into the chopper and the machine flew up over her head. Tears streamed out of her eyes, the still chubby, baby-like body shivering from the cold and the sobs. "Uncle! NOOOH!"

_Remove mom's scene._

_Kai was getting good at this, and the scene of the now lone behind-the-desk-Boris disappeared and let the scene of his baby-sister fill everything. If it wasn't because he was quite sure he didn't have a body at the moment, he was sure he would have cried. He continued to watch as the only human and the only one in his family that he was sure he had loved fought to get out of the handcuffs while the wind was getting more icy and strong. _

_After a wh_ile, the handcuff released themselves, probably being one of those that let you go after a certain amount of time. Biovolt loved those. The little girl had been using all her strength and weight to get in the same direction as the helicopter, and the sudden release let her to fall into the snow. Getting up and wiping the tears out of her eyes, she straightened herself up in her small, childish form and began walking. The only clothes she had was a small dress of thin fabric and small sneakers, and she fought bravely against the meter-deep snow. Around her, small snowflakes began to fall, wiping harshly against her round face, as the storm began to throw more challenges at her.

_The slate didn't blink as he saw his sister fight in an hour or two through the storm, looking for shelter and refusing to give up. He didn't flinch when she fell, getting completely out of sight in the tall snow. He watched it all the way__ through, until he saw her collapse and sit shivering and waiting for her death, crying and screaming for her _big brother_,__ not her father or mother. And he began feeling pain in the left part of his chest._

_At first, he was certain it was just feelings that clenched his heart, but it felt more physical. A slight sting in his left leg that couldn't have anything to do with feelings convinced him it was something more, and Asachi disappeared into blur before getting into nothingness right when her body finally made its last shiver. _

_The mighty phoenix was raging. Boris. It all came back to Boris. His sister had used 4 hours on dying, a two-year-old used 4 WHOLE HOURS, before finally giving up. If she was supposed to die, then at least just shoot her and get it over with! This was worse than he had imagined. Also simpler than what he imagined, but that didn't stop it from hurting, and getting a weird feeling of flying upwards, Kai got the feeling he was contained in a body._

_Like when you lay in your bed and really... actually... didn't want to get up. Knowing you should, but just not opening your eyes and let the world get into your day. He was certain he could just open his eyes, and then he would stare up in the eyes of Boris and kill him and then make sure to forget everything he had seen in this nothingness. _

… _Beep, gasp... Gasp, beep, gasp... Gasp, beep... Beep, gasp..._

_Getting a feeling someone was walking around him, Kai tried to lift his hand... Hey, hadn't he crashed a hand? Or arm, or something...? Ow. Pain... in his chest... unbelievable... But it wasn't in his arm, at least. He just couldn't feel the arm... The leg hurt, but it was minimal... It wasn't him who was breathing the air into his lungs. He couldn't explain what or why, or how he knew, but he knew his own body didn't fight to get the oxygen down in the lungs._

… _Beep, gasp... Gasp, beep..._

"_He's right this way, Voltaire." Boris... Rage came back into the mind of the slate._

… _Beep..._

"_... … In what condition is he in? What happened exactly?" Voltaire. What was he doing there? He was supposed to come tomorrow... Or was that when he should come? … He couldn't remember... Nothing was clear..._

_... Gasp, beep ...  
_

"_The rips are still cracked up, but none of them risk to puncture the lung or the heart anymore. If they don't begin to heal, we'll replace them. His leg is broken two places, but that damage is minor. Massive damage to his skull, but if it has damaged his brain, we came first decide when he wake up. And for the arm..." Unknown man..._

_... Gasp, beep, gasp ...  
_

"_Where's... I can't use him if he is missing an arm!" Voltaire roared. Understanding the words, Kai suddenly felt very cold... They had... That explained why he couldn't use it! What the fuck! Who were they to decide if he wanted the arm off or not! How dared they! He was going to kill THEM ALL!_

… _Gasp, beep... Seemed his body absolutely didn't care about what feelings raced through his mind. … Beep, gasp..._

"_We couldn't do anything else! Every bone, even the smallest ones in his hand and wrist, was splintered into thousands of pieces!" Unknown voice... Must be the idiot who decided to take off my arm... Doctor... freaking doctors always thought they were so clever... "There is no way he could have recovered from that! I..."_

_... Gasp, beep...  
_

"_Silence!" Voltaire bellowed. "You are going to correct your mistake with that arm. You are going to fix him up in a better shape than before, and if his brain has gotten any damage, you are the one who gets punishment for it." Yeah, you are going to fix it all, or I'll haunt you for the rest of your life if you kill me in the end! _

… _Beep... Gasp, beep, gasp..._

"_I'll... I'll try. We... We have a project going on... It... Might cost him his life, but he is in a coma, and he doesn't seem to be going to wake up again... But if he does, it'll save both of our..." Unknown voice faded, and Kai got back into his nothingness, once again falling... and continuing to fall... until he hit the ground hard. _

_Immediately when the fall ended, thoughts went back to Asachi instead of the news he had just received. He s_at with his baby-sis in his arms on a field in the beautiful summer of Russia... She was looking at him, smiling wide... Their parents were out of sight, but it didn't bother the two kids... They were used to getting forgotten every once in a while, so they just continued to sit on the ground... But they also knew both parents at least loved them a little.

The little girl cuddled into her big-brother. "I love you, Kai," she told him with a voice shivering from excitement. "We'll be together always... Right?" Getting her bangs out of her eyes, the bigger kid smiled down at her and nodded, tracing her facial features with a small finger. She had smudged his face-paint, but since she had had fun doing it, he didn't was so young, but so clever and sharp, exactly like him. She was going to be an important woman one day. "You'll always take care of me, Kai... Always..." That, he had promised her hundreds of times...

* * *

An hour ago, they had been able to see the Eiffel-tower and big buildings... Now, they only saw trees. Though having given up leadership, and looking extremely laid back and smug until half an hour ago, Tala had suddenly demanded everyone to take cover in a nearby forest and demanded them to move as silently as possible without going out to the open field. Fortunately, they had gotten good at moving quickly and silently. Unfortunately, some of the horses didn't like not being able to see their surroundings because of the trees, so they were making a fuss.

But that was why they had Brooklyn! - it seemed. The one thing the lazy bastard wasn't lazy about was animals, and he somehow managed to convince the five big animals that he was going to protect them if someone should decide to attack them. And since the guy was talking to the animals as if they were humans, the people who decided to try and help him, and only managed to get in his way, found themselves extremely amused while doing their job.

The new leaders of their group immediately contacted Tala after having gotten people into the woods. "What was all that fuss about, Tala? Thought you wanted to get rid of the responsibility," the person who had gotten the leader of the cooking people, an eighteen years old British woman called Victoria**(2)**, asked. The redhead shrugged while trying to figure out whether or not he should actually tell them, but Bryan decided faster than him, since the emerald's mind already was made up about the need of telling the new leaders. So he stepped forward so he stood beside Tala instead of behind him.

"We both felt the presence of other people, and decided it was better to act than to consult you, since we might be spotted in the open field if we weren't fast. We do not know if they are Boris' underlings who have found us, or something else, but it's best to be sure before we go out in the open again. If it is Boris' men, we'll have to kill them to make sure they don't report our position, and make sure they won't find the bodies since it would tell them we had been there. We might also be lucky and they are friends, but since everyone is dead, I doubt it. But no matter which it is, it is best to be sure and stay in the forest as quiet as possible."

Tala let his eyes fall on the emerald with a thoughtful look, but decided he was agreeing with his teammate on the matter of telling them. But then, no more help was going to them. The redhead was agreeing to be a part of whatever the group did, as long as he liked what was happening, but he did not want to be in charge of anything but a possible fight with Boris in the future. "You decide what you will do with the information given," the wolf announced.

"Should we... Tell them?" It was Falak, and she narrowed her eyes thoughtfully... "No. It could cause trouble if they thought Boris had caught up to us, and might lead to chaos. If we don't know if it is Boris, we shouldn't get them to fear anything that might not be there." While the rest of the leaders seemed they wasn't sure about holding anything from their responsibilities, which was the people that had selected them, Tala took up his hand and padded the girl on her greasy, blond hair with a smirk. Then, he turned and began to walk over to talk with Brooklyn about his abilities with seeing the future and if he knew who the ones following them was. He knew, yeah, of course he knew. He just wasn't interested in freaking _telling_.

"You are going to be a good leader," was the words the previous leader left in his tracks, causing the rest of the new leaders to frown.

"How much have he kept away from us, then?" the guy leading the shelter-people asked. His name was Jenci, and he was from Hungary and spoke English with a thick accent**(3)**, but was decided as a worthy and good leader. And the others seemed to wonder the same, while Bryan just watched his captain a while, before turning to them again. On his face was planted a highly amused, enormously false and very sadistic grin that could give everyone the creeps, and Bryan knew it.

"About three-thirds of his worries," the emerald answered.

"But, that means al..." Jenci began.

"'xactly."

With that, also the emerald disappeared, finding a place at a safe distance from Tala, so that he neither was too close so it bothered anyone, nor too far away so that he couldn't come to the redhead's rescue. Leaving the leaders to discuss 'what-the-hell' all alone. It didn't take long, though, before he was needed again, no matter how creepy they had thought him to be. Falak sought Tala out first, but the redhead treated her with deaf ears. So, very angry, Falak found the emerald right when they reached a clearing in the woods.

"It's time for the hunters to... well, hunt. Would there get complications if we stopped now? Or are they close?" The girl looked anxious, but the male teen just shook his head. "They are gone for now?" Nod. "Good, I'll find the arrows and bows and get the hunters ready." Frown. "Yeah, I know, Bryan, don't bring the guns, we can't waste any ammo." Raise of eyebrow. "No, I don't know how I got to know you so well... Unless I got it all wrong? …" Amused grin, though it was only a false facade. "Guess I did... Right?" She began to feel stupid, and turned away to flee from him before she embarrassed herself too much. Might be a little too late...

"No, you didn't get it wrong," the emerald said, making her freeze on the spot and turn her head once again. "But I'm..." Was he supposed to tell? It was Tala's business what he did, but she was a new superior of his. In some way, she was more important than Tala, since she was the leader of a bigger group, even if she was a leader with three others. It didn't make her more important than the wolf, but that meant he _was_ supposed to tell her. "I'm going to look for them." The ones that might be following them. "I'm going east, because I have the feeling they are that way. Make sure you get the hunters to go the opposite way, or we can end up shooting each other." She nodded, understanding every aspect of his words. Though being born and raised in a country with no real forests, she was the perfect hunter.

They parted, and the hunters got together and made their bow ready while the emerald got over to Tala and told him what he had told Falak. The wolf wasn't really... happy for it. "You are not going alone," Tala said, as if stating an obvious fact. Bryan's face didn't show any emotion at the moment, and that told Tala the emerald was going to go alone anyway, unless he got the direct order not to. "If there is a risk that you are taken and brought back to Boris, then I'm not letting you go alone, and the risk _is_."

"Who do you want to go with me? We have to get it done, and you are not going." It sounded like an order, but that was normal when it was about protection of the absolute superior, and the wolf didn't react to it. "Everyone else is too clumsy or too loud, and with them, I'm in even bigger danger of getting discovered than if I was alone." The wolf grimaced, then put up a wolfish grin.

"You're so annoying when you outsmart me, Bry," the redhead said. "You are always one step ahead, and though you deny it, you can be extremely stubborn." I understand why Boris began to both favor and hate you, my friend. "Just... make sure not to get hurt, Bry, then I'm happy." He received a nod, and the wolf was far from convinced that it was a promise. But he didn't say anything, only narrowed the blue pools and stopped himself from getting stubborn and waste his time. Not that he had better things to do, since his job awaited the hunters coming back with meat.

The emerald headed directly for the trees and disappeared between the tall tree trunks, his eyes constantly slipping back and forth in the search of something abnormal. Not even animals were able to cover up their tracks, and that meant humans didn't either, though some were scarily good at it. Tala, as an extremely good example of that.

He came very far away from where the camp was set before he finally found what he looked for. A cracked branch with pink treads from clothes. Human clothes, clumsily forgotten after getting shredded by the pointy sprig. Looking at the ground, he found a unclear footprint of a human. It was very faint and too small to be the foot of a male, but he was able to determine what way it was turned towards. Rising up from his position squatting on the ground and followed the trail, only finding a footprint every sixth or seventh feet, sometimes even so long apart he had to look for other tracks like bended or broken sprigs to now he was going the right way.

It didn't take long after he had found their track till he got the feeling there was another presence, but he continued walking on. If it was Boris' people, he would get shot the moment he halted and looked around. Instead, he continued and located the person through the leafs. The person was very agile, moving fast through the trees with nearly no sound. Making the movement as smooth as possible, he grabbed his gun and was about to point it at the enemy when a growling sound claimed his attention, and he turned around fast.

The gun dropped to the ground when he for once got overwhelmed by surprise. A big, brown bear looked at him with lazy, tired eyes, as if he had just woken it up. As far as he knew, there didn't live any bears in this part of France, but guess the humans weren't there to scare them off... No matter what, a big beast stood and stared at him. Some claimed you should lie down and act like you were dead when bears appeared, but Bryan trusted his strength more than a saying he had heard many people deny. If the play-dead-thing showed to be a lie, he would end up dead for real.

The bear growled, seemingly finding the emerald as a threat to its territory, and though unarmed, the human didn't back away. Instead, he took a step forward, insane enough not to fear a creature twice his size. He had lived with one of those, a blonde called Spencer, but this one was moody and might even be three-four times bigger than him. The bear took a step before beginning to run, and Bryan jumped to the side as one of the giant paws reached out for him. The claws dug into his flesh, but already on his way to that side, the wounds were minor from what they could have been. One foot hit the ground and kept him in balance while the other tried to hit the bear's stomach, and it did despite his awkward and wounded position.

Though not having the size of a bear, Bryan had the strength, and was granted with a howl from the big animal. But it recovered far too quickly, and the emerald found himself flying through the air, hit in the wounds the bear already had brought. But blessed with little feeling of pain, he was able to get on all four without flinching and jumped to the side when the bear charged, getting missed by an inch. He rolled over to the side, got on his feet and charged directly at the bear while it was turning around. Only his left arm and side was bleeding at the moment, so he decided it was going pretty well for a human against such a thing.

He managed to get in a punch with the good arm, right to the animals jaw, and it howled even louder than before. But unlike what the emerald had thought, it didn't back down because of the pain, and Bryan once again flew through the air. He landed on his shoulder, and was quite sure he felt the it get dislocated. Черт!

"Дерьмо," (Shit) he mumbled when the outraged bear stayed to look for him, too angry to let him be. It roared in anger when he got up on all three, his dislocated shoulder unable to support him. _Of course_, the dislocated one was also on the one that had been his healthy one before, that was his normal, bad luck. He heard the bear charge again, and readied himself to die, until he saw his gun on the ground in front of him. Straining his whole body to the limit, he rose his hurt upper body and took his bleeding hand forward, grabbing the gun from the ground.

Then, he rolled his body over on his back and pointed the gun at the bear, not even trying to aim for it. BANG! The bear whined loudly, but continued its run. One of its forepaws landed on his chest, causing him to gasp in surprise, but else, he was missed. The bear fled, getting enough of it all when it was shot in the leg, leaving its opponent on the ground. It was many years since he had got such a bad beating, and he had no medication and no-one near to help him. Coughing badly after having a full-grown bear stomping on his chest, he tried to lie as still as possible to spare the shoulder, which, after his not-professional appraisal, was absolutely dislocated. Some of the ribs on his right side, once again the side that hadn't been pierced be the claws, had to have gotten bent when the animal decided to use him as a mat as its last big deed.

He leaned his head back down on the dry leafs and closed his eyes, knowing there was nothing he could do but wait for help to get to him. If he tried to walk around and look, he might strain the dislocated shoulder so bad it would never be the same as before. Waiting wasn't a bad thing for him, as he didn't feel any need of keeping himself entertained, and was able to simply lie there in a state of near-no thoughts while nothing happened.

If it wasn't for the fact that the adrenaline was disappearing, and the pain in the shoulder was so bad it even felt... uncomfortable. Not just that, but _very_ uncomfortable. It was so long ago he had met the actual feeling of true pain that it sowed fear in his mind, and the one that had just got through a battle with a bear without hesitating a second or losing his calm got into a state of near-panic for a little pain. And he didn't know how to calm down, no having experience with the feeling of panic, so he just tried to suppress it instead of letting it control him.

When it finally happened, he realized someone was walking on the creaky, dried leafs around him. He didn't want to open his eyes before he had full control, and so, they kept closed while the person around him moved closer. The footsteps were surprisingly light, but he still refused to open the green eyes. Instead, he tried to breathe so lightly as possible, so that if it was an enemy, he or she might decide him as dead. That would still be a bad thing, but it was better than dying... Maybe... Or maybe, if he by a miracle was able to surprise the person, he could kill the enemy before the enemy killed him or got a problem.

He had a gun, too... But if it was one of Boris' people, he or she probably had the normal vests. If he should be able to do anything, he had to do it fast, and that meant no time to aim. And unlike the bear, he had to assume this person wasn't big, or it would have been impossible for the person to climb in the trees like that, or walk with so little sound that it probably had taken a long time before the emerald had even discovered the person. That meant slimmer chances of hitting the person. But being lighter just made it even more possible for him to use his strength to get the person down of the ground and use the gun to shoot he or she in the head. Despite the physical injuries, he had a higher chance if he chose to attack physically.

He opened his eyes a very little, making him able to see light and shadow, and he followed the person walk around him, a dark spot in the lighter surroundings. Just as he was about to jump up, the pain in his shoulder doubled by a hundred when he tensed his body. When he sat up, he groaned in the incredible pain that overcame him. A shoulder like this seemed to be an enormous problem, if it was able to paralyze _him _of all people. He sighed and leaned back again, laying down to the ground, giving up life for good this time. He couldn't hide as a dead body anymore, if he even had been able to before... He couldn't even raise the gun anymore, his energy slipping away faster than he liked and was used to. Черт, maybe it wasn't that clever to attack the bear...

"You really don't fear anything, do you?" a male voice said, and it dripped with both hate and fright. "Or maybe, you are just too stupid to realize that a bear might just be stronger than yourself." Bryan raised his narrow eyes to the shadow hovering over him now, and it took him time before he was able to see the person clearly. The emeralds widened at the sight. "Now, now, don't look so surprised."

* * *

**(1)** Not a word, is it? O.o Unbribeable... You cannot bribe him... Unbribeable... I don't know, **whatever**! -.-'

**(2)** That's the name of my pony! Dunno why I said that... But that is my pony's name anyway ^^

**(3)** Since I'm not English, and have no idea how to even write danish accents, I'm not going to make accents in my stories.

* * *

Ya know what? I have an enormous problem! One of my mains is in a coma, and I am lacking things to write ^^ But I'll figure it out, I promise! But I'm open for suggestions, if you have understood the... things that go on. By the way, I'm not home most of next week, so I don't have time to make the next chapter of this story. Therefore, I will probably send the next chapter of Gun Education next Sunday instead of this one ^^

Hope the chapter is confusing, cause I want it to be xD Or, not necessarily, but whatever. I'm stopping my babbling now ^^ Though I wanted to say that Boris killed Kai's mom by used strychnine-poisoned candy, and that I borrowed the idea from a danish book I don't think have ever been translated... Anyway, I don't know the book's name in English, but it must be called something like 'The Neglected Spring' ^^

Anyway, enjoy in joy! ^^


	14. Unknown phenomenon

Right, back to this story again, since I, as you may know, sent a chapter of Gun Education last week! As I said, or at least think I said, I was a little busy to previous update (I wrote updute, wtf? O.o), and I... Kind of left with a pretty annoying cliffy, I think. I'm not normally good at cliffies; I mostly end up just killing it off when killing is needed and such. Don't know if I have actually done two in a row, but don't think so... And the only reason last chapter was a cliffy is because it actually was the first part of the Bry-scene that I'm having in this chapter, and since I could see that it would be long even in my thoughts, I chose the most annoying place to split it up ^^ Hope you aren't too angry xD

Btw, hey everyone who has put this story as your fave, I really appreciate it ^^ I... Most admit, I'm quite happy people begin reading my story xD

Disclaimer: I don't own and will probably never own beyblade and the beyblade characters. What I do own, on the other hand, is this story-plot and the characters you haven't seen anywhere else ^^

Warning: I am not going to say it, cause you already know (cool warning, don't ya think? I have a warning, buuut... Sorry, I won't tell it to you ^^).

Dedication: I dedicate this to Gateways, because I think she'll love this and I had her in mind writing it ^^

Reviews:

GatewaysDiary: Just think Kai would... Kinda do it, with the kitchen-work. Boris did mock him about it, cause it's not really high-class, but Kai is... was... something bored out of his mind ^^ Actually, I was kinda hoping to get him likeable again before he got smashed under a machine, so I guess I did a good job. Now, on to chapter 13; yeah, seriously, Tala must be born under and unlucky star with that life and that luck forced upon him! Fevers suck, and they have a good timing in his case, neh? Anyway, Kai's part is supposed to be kinda a mystery, though I know everything about it (anything else would be bad for the story, wouldn't it?) ^^ But Boris is a dick (woah, don't think I have ever used that word before O.o Now I sound like stupid...). Seriously, I HATE THAT LOAD OF SHIT! Of course, I'm the one making him do things... thehe... I feel so not innocent... Council is interesting, isn't it? Anyway, you cracked me up when you killed superiors xD And then, at the next sentence, it only got worse, cause you talked about Bryan taking on bears. It just reminded me of a mother, trying to make her kid realize that if you try to eat yogurt with your fingers, you're gonna dirty your clothes. That's just a totally disturbed picture when the actual situation is a teenage-boy, who is insane enough to take on a bear xD God, I have never thought Bry as a bigger idiot, but he just don't fear!

So, now, we get to the next part! The... -eee... CHAPTER! (Seriously, stop me from doing this, awkward beginnings!)

* * *

Unknown phenomenon

* * *

_Finally, the heartbreaking picture faded into nothing as Kai continued to stare into the darkness his little star had disappeared from, his unfocused mind blocking any other thoughts of the past or the present that might bring her out of his head. He kept the sight of her face when she suffered in the cold and sound of her cry when she was lead to her death away, too. The only thing in his mind was the laugh and smile of her face when she destroyed his war-paint or tucked his bangs, or just when she was near him. So the violet eyes were bound to look at where she had been just minutes ago, where she had closed her eyes and slept with her head leaned back against small-Kai's chest._

_The nothingness was all that was left of her now, though it seemed he might think he could bring her back just by keeping his eyes on her spot. The scene had been long, the two of them had been playing in the green grass. When the sun shifted west-wards, Asachi had gotten tired, and they got back to sitting with each other. And she had fallen asleep while leaning towards him, her hand clenching his now useless left hand in her own, smaller one._

_It was about this time Kai had sat down and taken the moving right hand around his knees. He had sat down with the legs curled up in front of his chest, the left hand hanging without reacting to his orders, but that wasn't a surprise, when the hand itself was gone. He didn't know how he was able to sit down, but since it was the same question as with standing. He was uncertain whether he was on some kind of floor, or if he was just flying somewhere in the dark._

_He knew he should be mad at Boris, but... it seemed so far away know, her death... He had been watching her happiness in a scene that was about 2-3 hours long, but it seemed years since he heard her scream and cry... He knew he should be angry... but he couldn't be. It was like a lifetime had passed and it didn't matter..._

_A new picture began to grow, and he closed his eyes when he realized it was her death to get played once again. He didn't want to look at it anymore; it was breaking his heart to look at it... But nothing else reached his mind other than her; he was forced to hear them walk through the deep snow again, up the mountain... Until he finally found something else to think about... His family in a whole..._

_Another scene replaced the old one, a scene with his dad, sta_nding in front of Voltaire. Standing at Voltaire's right side was Boris, and the purple-haired had a triumphant look on his face. Voltaire just looked very displeased, and his displeasure seemed to run all around the young man in front of h_im. If Kai knew his dad well enough, which he knew __he __didn't, since he didn't have any memories of his own about the man in front of him, he decid_ed Susumu to be about 20 years. And the reason why Voltaire was displeased was clear, since the younger of the duo-haired was both close to tears and had a look of defiance in his eyes. Two things Voltaire despised.

"I can't continue doing this, father," he said, and though the voice shivered, and the hands trembled, something in this shivering voice, and in this trembling hand, showed strength. Boris looked very happy, but his face changed when Voltaire turned his head to look at him, mimicking his superiors cold expression. _Seems I have taken my dad's role as Boris' opponent in Voltaire's fondness and pleasure_. Then, Voltaire turned again and looked back at the young man... his son. "I won't continue."

"What is it that makes you make these choices, Susumu?" the ten years younger Voltaire asked, the venom in his voice poorly hidden in the false curiosity he set into the dark voice. "What is it that makes you decide to defy me? Your father? Haven't I given you food and shelter, and yet you turn your back to me? It is it that makes you?"

The youngest man in the room stomped in the ground in anger, but it didn't have any effect on Voltaire or Boris. The hands of Susumu were balled into fists, and he seemed to force the tears away. "On my last mission, I got threatened by a 4-year-old kid, for God's sake! A _4-year-old_! The only reason I'm alive is because he wasn't strong enough to pull the trigger! You didn't see the look on his face when he tried to kill me!" The man was obviously very upset.

Voltaire watched his son for another second. Then, he began laughing loudly, and Boris smirked even wider. "I believe I have seen that face," Voltaire said, getting eye-contact with Boris for a second before turning to his son again, shaking his head. "Su, Su, Su. Are you really growing that weak? You have killed many parents before, and just when a kid is actually strong enough to try and protect his parents, you are ready to throw everything away? This one little redhead is able to get you scared out of you mind, even though he isn't even strong enough to pull the trigger?" The laughter stopped, and Voltaire's hand hit the desk hard with anger in his eyes. "You are weak, Susumu! You son is a better successor than you, and he is still only a small child! How do you expect to run my business when I'm dead?"

"Maybe I won't," Susumu sneered in a weak attempt of comeback, and Voltaire laughed again.

"Exactly, you won't! Not until you have showed me you have gotten rid of this weakness! I have a new assignment for you, and this time, the boy in the house should be too weak to scare you!" Voltaire took a paper from a drawer and slid it over the desk towards his son, before turning the office-chair around to look out the window. Outside, the wild plains of snow told that they were in Voltaire's personal mansion and home. "Get out of my sight."

"No." Susumu took a short look at the paper in front of him, and then up at Voltaire again. "All my life, you have treated me more like a pet than a son. Why should I do as you ask? The only thing your company does is hurting people, and you have even made your own son a murderer! When you treat people as such, they will turn against you in time. I'm not going to kill one more couple to bring you their son. I refuse. What will you do about it, father?"

Voltaire turned the chair around again and rose to get around his desk. Standing right in front of his son, he glared him down. Susumu hadn't inherited the Hiwatari-glare, but he was still able not to bow under the intense weight of it. "The only reason you are able to defy me is because you are supposed to be a leader. The rest of my subordinates would kill you if they heard your words. I have more power than anyone, son. Are you willing to throw that and your father away?" Seeing the continued resistance in his son's face, he turned around. "You have never been good enough anyway. Leave, if that's what you want. You can take you little doll of a daughter with you if you are ready to fight through your wife, but I'm gonna keep my grandson. I suspects he have taken all the talents you were supposed to have from you and have added them to his own." At first, the younger Hiwatari was frozen to the spot. Then, he lifted his hand to punch his father.

Voltaire caught the arm in his powerful grip. "Keep away from my son." Voltaire raised his eyebrow, then smirked and let go of his hand. "I'll stay if you let him be, okay?" The voice o_f Kai's father was so begging Kai narrowed his eyes in disgust. Yeah, Voltaire seemed to have been right when he talked about the weakness of his father, and Kai was not going to forgive the man. In the end, he hadn't been there, so what he said in this part of now and present didn't matter._

_Kai continued to watch_ _his father and grandfather interact while he tried to figure out what he wanted to see... His thought drifted back to Asachi, but he didn't want it to happen when the picture of her death once again began to grow. He closed his eyes and covered his ears, refusing to face it one more time. Think... Think... Think of something else... Think... Why couldn't he think?_

_A new thought hit him, and a new picture grew. He took his time realizing, but found it extremely confusing, as he was left far behind whatever he was supposed to see. He was flowing over the rock of a cliff, and far away in front of him was a... cloud of dust?_

_Get me over there! he demanded his thoughts, and suddenly, everything became a blur. He ended in the front and got a glimpse of the cars racing by before they left him behind again, though he saw the silhouette of his grandfather in one of the car. He felt like he was supposed to get annoyed, but didn't really want to bother. Get me over and stay where they are! he then thought, and this time succeeded. Though still going at high speed, this time he at least followed whatever was happening. The wind from the speed didn't hit him, despite him flowing fast over the earth._

_It seemed there were two groups of cars, racin_g through the forest. The ground was uneven and rocky, as they were driving through the mountains, and this caused the cars to jump and glide every now and then, when they met mud and holes. The cars in the front where a mix of old pickups and even older passenger cars, while the back group was purely made of jeeps which were made of jeeps, made to the terrain they were i_n. Though not understanding a thing of the scene or what it had to do with what Voltaire had said about Rei and the cliff, Kai watched it all. He didn't even gasp when one of the passenger-cars found a rock that was a little too tall for it and rolled over. A glimpse of a group of neko-jins fighting their way out of the broken car made him realize what it was. Voltaire in person and some of his men were chasing the neko-jins, and the villagers had been lucky enough to find some cars to give them a chance. Yet Kai already knew the outcome as he left the car that had rolled over behind, seeing one of the jeeps stop and the guards beat the nekos to unconsciousness before they got a chance to disappear in the woods. _

_He turned his head and glared a_t the front cars. Voltaire was getting closer. On the back of the trucks, a big amount of neko-jins hold on tight, and despite the speed, the red bandana, long ponytail and white clothes were recognizable between the many other people. They were yelling from the back of a pickup to the back of a pick_up, but Kai didn't understand Chinese. But just the mere sight of Rei was able to get him to smile a little, since-_

Suddenly, the passenger-car that had held the front disappeared. Someone screamed as the rest of the cars halted, causing many of the ones on the pickups' backs to get slammed into the front of the car, Rei included. The pickup nearest the front glided on the uneven ground and ended up falling out over the cliff too, only half of its passengers able to get off it before they, too, got to their death. "What are we gonna do now?" a female neko-jin asked, and no-one had the answer as they watched the enemy drive closer in a more sane pace. It was impossible for them to turn around without ending with falling over the cliff, since it was safe to assume none of the neko-jins were very used to drive and wasn't comfortable with backing.

"We won't let them get us," one of the others said, a man with well-know_n traits. Gary's father, if everything was as Kai assumed it to be. The man had the same bear-like appearance, making Kai smirk in slight amusement._

_But his words were empty, as the_ enemy jeeps stopped and Voltaire went out of the jeep to the far left. He smirked triumphantly. His hands were loose. The eyes were glistened.

It see_med, well, the nekos had to have been a bit of a pain in his ass, or he wouldn't let his pleasure in catching them be _that _clear to anyone, and that made Kai proud of his neko-friend. But it was no su_rprise when he began to speak with a both angry and excited edge in his voice. "Well, well, look what mice I have caught me. I am kind to you," he assured them with an unpleasant smile. "I give you a choice. You can come with me and survive, or stay here and... get killed, more or less. I'm in a generous mood today, my animalistic friends."

The nekos all shared a look, all fifty of them. Then, one of the men nearest the cliff turned back to the man with a smirk of his own. "I would rather die than be your prisoner," he announced, and then, let himself fall backwards over the cliff that had already swallowed two cars of his allies. The rest hesitate a moment before letting themselves fall, too, and disappear behind the cliff. The rest were ready to do it too, and they all move over towards the edge.

"NO! Stop them!" Seeing the guards move too slowly, Voltaire grumbles and jump forward. He was unbelievably fast and got a grip on one of the women and threw her back towards the jeeps. The others hesitated, wanting to help... and hesitation was a weakness Voltaire was sure to punish.

The old man kicked one of the hesitating before the male neko-jin got to jump the cliff, and the neko fell to the ground with force. Then, Voltaire took out a gun and shot the green-haired kid, Kevin, in the foot just as the young one had stopped in front of the fall. The kid fell to the ground in pain and surprise, but Voltaire was already shooting a few more. He only managed to hit four more, where one of them ended up tripping over the cliff instead of jumping. Then, the nekos were gone... Rei had disappeared in the crowd, and only a few hurt nekos became prisoners.

_Kai smiled wide at the look on his grandfather's sour face. He wasn't shocked about the pride of the nekos._

_

* * *

_

"You really don't fear anything, do you?" a male voice said, and it dripped with both hate and fright. "Or maybe, you are just too stupid to realize that a bear might just be stronger than yourself." Bryan raised his narrow eyes to the shadow hovering over him now, and it took him time before he was able to see the person clearly. The emeralds widened at the sight. "Now, now, don't look so surprised." Bryan was stupid enough to try and sit up again, but got reminded of the shoulder and slowly leaned back. "We have to get that shoulder back in place, or it'll be trouble," the person said, and Bryan just looked at him from the ground and raised an eyebrow.

"You have any knowledge in relocating as dislocated shoulder?" the emerald asked, and the golden eyes that were flowing above him rolled. "Guess not... I'm not able to move, and I'm bleeding to death."

"Well, it was you who was stupid enough to attack a bear. You deserve to bleed to death for doing that, you know that? Man, how stupid can a person be?" Bryan just sighed at looked down under him to see if he really _was_ losing blood from the wounds he had gotten. He did. "I was so sure that thing would end up eating you, but the good thing about it was that you at least didn't shoot me." The emerald lifted his gaze again and forced the pained expression away from his face, and made it look emotionless once again. He didn't like pain, he had found that out.

"I'm bleeding to death and can't move unless you know anything about shoulders," he pointed out again, and Lee sighed annoyed. He had never liked Bryan ever since the first final, when he had tried to kill Rei, and there was a risk that he might have gone back to Boris and Voltaire. He had been on their side once before, and Lee wasn't good at the trusting-game towards people he, in the end, didn't want to know. Bryan was never to be forgiven for his sin.

"I don't know anything about shoulders." Lee was able to see the life go out of the beautifully colored, but yet cold and emotionless, green eyes, and he realized the other was about to give up his life. He had seen animals do that, the light of life going out in their eyes when they realized nature just didn't want them to be, he had seen them give up and stop fighting. But he hadn't seen that in a human... And it was scary, no matter if he hated the person or not. "I'm getting help. Wait here... Don't give up; I'll get help, alright? Just stay alive." It was awkward to help someone you hated...

Still ready to let life slip through his fingers, Bryan watched as the neko-jin disappeared between the bushes. Though life wasn't seeping out of his body yet, the realization of having wound that might as well just kill him made him react through a thing he didn't really have. His instincts told him his existence was ending, so his mind let life go slowly...

The green eyes were half-closed when he heard people move around him again, and he opened them again to meet five pairs of golden. His vision was blurred... He couldn't make out the figures, only see colors moving... Maybe the blood-loss was getting to him... He tried to move again, but the pain made him freeze... He didn't like pain... Really, _really _didn't like pain... How could anyone take feeling it? He couldn't...

"Aren't that...?" Female. Right. Pink. It was that girl... The one he didn't remember the name of...

"Yes, it is him. Just let it go. Mori, you said you had knowledge in shoulders, right? He says it's dislocated." Lee. Left.

"Yes, I know how to do that, but... I think I can see one of his ribs... What the hell happened? It's like something just sliced some meat off... But yes, it looks dislocated." Female. Adult. Black and brown. Above his head... Unknown.

"He got attacked by a bear... Or attacked a bear... Actually, I don't know what happened. I watched, but I was too surprised to actually see what the fuck he was doing." Lee again. The vision got clearer, but he didn't want to see them... Why didn't he want to see them? … They disturbed him, might be the reason... Did he want to die? Did what he want matter? He didn't want anything, and had never wanted anything... Maybe he shouldn't have attacked a bear...

"A _bear_? He attacked a _bear_?" Pink is shouting... Why don't I remember her name? The others react like that too... They are overreacting... Though... Tala would say that too. But... It's not like it's... _that_ dangerous to attack a bear.

"I would say the shoulder is the least of his worries." The female adult again... The vision was focused now, and when he looked up to see the ones above him, he found Lee, pink-girl, his opponent from the first final called Rei, a female adult and a male adult. They all had the thing in common that they had golden eyes and pointed teeth, showing their race. But else, he could determine so much that none of them seemed to be related in blood.

"Just set the shoulder back in place. When that has happened, I can take care of myself," the emotionless announced.

"You need help, Bryan," Rei said. Bryan raised a surprised eyebrow. He had never actually apologized to him... And he didn't know if the other hated him. Hate was something Bryan understood. "We have bandages and medicine."

They were ready to waste their supplies on him? No, they wanted him to answer their questions; he couldn't see other reasons why they should help him. But he nodded nonetheless and looked at his shoulder. "If you get it back in place, I'm able to walk on my own." He was not going to let them carry him. Support him, that he might let them, but not carrying... Also, Tala would go nuts if he found out. He was very oversensitive about what Bryan said yes to do.

"Right..." The woman they had called Mori looked unconvinced, but she nodded to the man that until then had kept silent. He walked over to Bryan's side and followed the woman's instructions, and his got a grip in the teenager's hand, and the man grimaced slightly. "It's gonna hurt," the woman warned, and Bryan was just about to raise his eyebrow when the man pulled and turned the arm in the way he was instructed to. The pain in his shoulder got a hundred times worse for a second he was able to endure, and then it got too weak for him to even react to it. Should that hurt? It didn't.

Mori stared at him, obviously surprised that he didn't cry out in pain. Immediately finding out nothing was stopping him from getting up, he got life back in his eyes and sat up. Then, he looked down on his body and realized how bad he had been wounded. "Oh." Apparently not the reaction they wanted, and Lee got back his hateful expression. Bryan lifted the hand on the arm he had just gotten back in his socket to touch the wound. But a hand stopped him.

"You shouldn't use that arm before it's healed," Mori said, and he just nodded and got up on his legs, which caused the blood to run out of his side even faster. Though he himself hadn't realized it, he was dizzy and swaying, and it seemed clear for them. "We have to take him with us. We don't even know if he's with someone who can help him," Mori said.

"No. He's strong and unreliable. We can't have him with us. He might also be one of Voltaire's men. That has happened before." Bryan decided not to bother defending himself from the lion. He already knew this neko-jin had decided to hate him.

"It's Boris' man, not Voltaire's. But I'm not with him, no," the emerald informed, but Lee didn't look convinced.

"He had a gun, how should that be possible if he didn't have connection to them? He pointed the gun at me!"

"Calm down, Lee," pink girl tried to reason, and luckily, it seemed the rest took her side. "We can't get answers from a dead body, so we must help." Oh, seems the journey has gotten her hard. Bryan had never really known her, though, he couldn't determine how much she had changed...

"He doesn't seem to have any tracking-devices on him," Rei pointed out, looking at the shredded clothes. It was the first thing he had said in that fight, but it was a good thing he had said. He was protecting... That was surprising, but good... In a way... Did that mean he had forgiven being thrown into the hospital? Hopefully... Man, weird thoughts... Bryan still stood, swaying as the blood was running out of him... Then, everything turned black...

When the green eyes emerged again for what felt like seconds later, he stared up in the roof of a big tent. He didn't recognize the place, but was not one to go into panic. He tried to sit up, and found himself shirtless and wrapped up in bandages with the arm that had been dislocated was set in a sling. He had never had an arm in a sling before, and found it... very uncomfortable. How were you supposed to do _anything_ with an arm if it was in a sling? No, he absolutely didn't like it.

He was hungry and thirsty and had a headache. He very rarely had headaches... Trying to get up and get out finding some food, he lost footing about to get to his feet. The sling made it impossible for him to break the fall. He cursed in Russian and tried to use the other hand to get up, but it was covered in bandages and unbelievably weak. Unable to use his hands to get up, he took his foot up under his body and tried to get up that way, and though being very unstable, it succeeded slowly.

A hand shot out from nowhere and grabbed him before he fell, and he looked into some golden eyes. Surprising, _very _surprising, when you could guess you were in a neko-jin-camp. "You should take a little more care of yourself. I don't think any of the wounds are fatal, but you ended up losing a dangerous amount of blood." It was Rei, and he took upon a facade of happiness. Bryan knew things about facades and false smiles. "Did you seriously attack a bear?" Trying to get a conversation... The emerald decided to try, though he wasn't able to be totally in the socializing-games.

"No, I just didn't back away," he answered, leaning a little more over towards Rei. It caused the neko-jin to look a little agonized. The emerald was about pure muscles, which the small tiger wasn't build to bear, but Bryan just needed to get back on balanced feet and got back to lifting my own body-weight. "I didn't know if I should trust the saying about that you should just play dead, and decided I had a bigger chance of survival in fighting. It's not like I'm weak, and I was able to kick it a few times... ... ... I deeply apologize."

"For wha-? Oh..." Rei's false smile got smaller, and more convincing, as he looked at the teenager beside him. "I prefer not to hold grudges. You were under Boris' influence at that time, and you seem to have gotten a worse beating than I from the scars on your back... Yeah, we did see them, don't look at me like that. But I'm not going to ask, if you don't want to tell. That would be rude." Bryan pulled himself out of his grip and moved all the way out of the tent. One look around told him that the nekos were far more used to this way of living, but since they had all nearly lived in the wild already before the world had turned to terror, Bryan could rightfully protect his group for their more uncivilized ways. If he had wanted to bother. "Were you traveling with anyone? It would be weird if you did and went alone, but it's still possible..."

The emerald eyes looked at the golden ones with a dull expression, then nodded. "Yeah, I was..." He looked around again and realized it was close to total blackness in the dark. Only small fires was lighting up around the tents, making everything out of the light's reach impossible to see. "You must have guards in the... Tala! Oh no, damn it!" Rei got dragged with the bigger teen when the emerald suddenly began moving. Tala was going to be furious – and worry himself out of his mind. He was probably searching for his teammate right now... This was bad... Bad, bad, _bad_...

"Woah, calm down!" Rei said, trying to stop the emerald from rampaging through the camp. "How the hell can anyone be so strong, even after such a blood-loss?" Bryan stopped and raised an eyebrow, and he made out Rei's smile in the now near-total dark, and could also see the amused edge. He had dragged them both over to the other end of the camp, but had then found out he didn't know where he were. That had caused him to stop. "But that means Tala is in the group, right?"

Bryan nodded. "We think we know where Ian is. But... I guess you're more interested about the Bladebreakers. Tyson and Hillary are the only ones left." The emerald saw the smile falter at the news, but didn't know what to do about it. He wasn't good at comforting... But to his luck, Rei managed to put up a new, smiling facade. "We also have a few others with us of the professional bladers. Brooklyn... And Mathilda..." He began with them simply because he didn't know the names of the rest, and he was thinking hard. "And the Italian... Enrique, he's called... And other BEGAs..."

"I see you concentrate a lot on knowing your competitors, huh?" The laughter was clear in his voice. "I'm sorry for Lee, by the way, but I guess you assumed rightfully his problem when you bothered to say sorry for something that happened over three years ago." Bryan just shrugged, despite his the sling and shoulder. "But... No, I don't want to know what happened to my team. How many people are there in your gro-" A loud yell and a BANG drew their attention to the forest, and the man who had popped Bryan's shoulder back in its socket came out of the woods, clenching his side.

"A... A demon! A demon with a gun!" He looked terrified, but Bryan just smiled the slightest, little bit. That could only mean one thing, and sure enough, a white-orange lightning with a fiery red head tackled the already wounded man through the near-total darkness.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY TEAMMATE, YOU BASTARD?" Tala roared, and the man under him groaned in pain. The wolf was both smaller and thinner than the adult, but he had pulled the black-haired head back and held the gun to the man's throat. "WHERE IS HE?" Rei stood frozen, staring shocked at the wolf, while the emerald began to move and neared the angry wolf. As always, Bryan had calculated right. Tala was furious and going through the dark forest looking for him.

"Tala..." Bryan began, and the redhead looked up, the blue eyes freezing the emerald all the way through the darkness. Then, the redhead seemed to realize who the bearer of the voice was, and the wolf howled in happiness and flung himself over to his emotionless teammate, taking the arms around the bigger one and clenching the life out of him. If he hadn't been good with the pain, Bryan would have been screaming in agony, but instead, the emerald was only feeling pleasure in the hurt and unable to breath... "Tala... I think... You're choking me..." Then, the wolf seemed to realize sling and bandages, and he pushed away with a serious look on his face.

"What happened to you?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, while the other neko-jins began to assemble. They seemed to be about 30 people in all and far more groomed than the ones in the other group. Still a little dirty, still having ragged clothes, and yet they looked a lot more civilized. Tala looked around him, then back at his victim. "Woah, thought you guys were dead! Of course, I'm happy you weren't, but we haven't seen any of you since everyone died!" The wolf was out of character, and that meant good mood. Probably as a result of finding Bryan, his poor, lost friend.

"More or less thought the same about the rest of the world, but here you are," Lee commented sarcastically, and Tala narrowed his eyes, getting into the mood Lee only knew him with. An emotionless mask set on the redhead's face, the sudden change getting noticed by many. Then the lion shifted his gaze to the neko on the ground, and the eye dilated when he realized it wasn't just the tackle that kept the man down. The blood was beginning to make a pool on the ground under the neko-jin, and the cat-eyes were able to see. Tala just rose an eyebrow, like it was totally normal. "You shot him?"

"Yeah, I've got a gun, wanna borrow?" Tala said, and it wasn't really a question. The lion growled, and the wolf growled back, and in a matter of seconds before one of them launched themselves. Lee got first, but just as he was about to hit the wolf in the head, Bryan interfered. He flung himself in between them and swung the hand on his none-slinged arm right in the face of the lion, sending the neko backwards and to the ground. "Bryan, I _can _take care of myself, seriously!" Tala complained, while Bryan looked at his arm. It didn't like getting swung at people, it seemed.

"I need new bandages." Matter-of-fact, emotion-empty voice as he watched the red blood beginning to seep through the white again. The claw-wounds had closed themselves, but now, thanks to the punch, they were open again.

Rei suddenly burst out laughing. Lee sat up and glared at his friend grumpily as someone began helping Tala's victim.

"What's so funny?" Lee grumbled, though getting a small smile on his face. Rei hadn't laughed in a very long while, not after the death of his mother and father many months ago.

"You're such a bunch of idiots!" the raven answered, still unable to stop the smile on his face. "Man, you have just met, and you end up fighting? And Bryan, what's that for a thing to say? It's honorable you protect your friend, but seriously, what the fuck?" The words and voice was both strict and smiling. "Tala, you're not making a very good first expression by shooting one of ours, you know? And it's only getting worse." The wolf smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head in a Tyson-like manner. Bad first impressions were normally Bryan's business.

"Yeah... Sorry..." the redhead said and then moved over and offered Lee a hand. "We can provide dirty bandages and bad medicine to get him back on his feet." The lion fought off his smile, too stubborn to let an enemy set it on his face, but he took the hand nonetheless. When the neko was back on his feet, Tala's blue eyes went back to his teammate. "So... What happened to Bryan? I'm going to run if the one who have managed to beat him that badly is here, cause that would be seriously scary."

"He attacked a bear," Mariah revealed herself, and Tala stared at her stupidly. Then, he turned to Bryan, eyes lightning.

"A _bear_?"

"I saw him doing it," Lee informed.

"A _BEAR_?"

"Technically, I didn't attack it..."

"A _fucking BEAR_?"

"... I just didn't back away..."

"You... A... You... You fight... _A BEAR_?"

"... Just didn't know if I should trust the rumors..."

"So, you decide instead of lying down in the grass and act like you're dead, you chose you had _bigger chances of survival _if you danced with _a bear_?" The wolf walked towards the emerald with ominous steps and murder in the brilliant blue eyes. Never before had he looked more like a demon. "You're betta run, Bryan, cause I'll fucking kill you when I catch you," he growled, not caring about Bryan or his sling. The redhead launched himself, but Bryan took a step to the side, turned around and ran, the redhead a few feet behind him. They were incredibly fast, both of them, and the distance between them didn't change.

"YOU PROMISE ME NOT GET HURT, AND THEN YOU GO OUT AND FIGHT A FUCKING _BEAR_?"

* * *

_You could get used to nothingness after a while. Kai found out this, and though he didn't know how long time that had passed, he didn't really care. While he slowly got used to the feeling of being nothing, the memory of his body and life flowed away... If he had ever lost track of himself, it was nothing what was happening now. _

_He wasn't even sure if he had had something outside this darkness... The Kai he saw in the scenes, or memories, or whatever it was, weren't like the Kai he felt like here. It was a cold being... A being that hold everyone off himself... He didn't know if he should think it was actually true, but if it was... Then who was the true Kai? The Kai that was flowing here, watching everything without being a part, or the Kai that was out there, a cold being that had ended in a coma and as a cripple because of his games and wrong choices? The Kai who felt he looked at a stranger, or the stranger that was looked at... Who was he actually?_

_In the blur of actual life... he thought that was the reason for why he was here... The games and choices... But he didn't really know it for sure... Life was nothing but clouds at the moment. If he could and should decide who he was, it was the one here. But what the one here was, he didn't know either. One who... regretted the behavior of himself... _

_He had seen most of the time he was with the Bladebreakers now, and while he knew he loved his teammates, he didn't like himself. Yeah, the others could be annoying, but they had fun. And the second him didn't. The second him didn't seem to like when they were loud and laughing. The second him was cold._

_Maybe... he should just leave this him... Maybe it was best to... Just leave... Everything..._

_From one second to another, the black nothingness got white nothingness, pure white. It was blinding, but not painful or... anything... He could feel a pull... he was on his way upwards again... He felt warmth and realized he had been cold until then... And though something told him it was bad, though an alarm was screaming somewhere, he didn't want to turn around. He was leaving now... Leaving the cold being that was called Kai Hiwatari._

_A red light stopped him, and _she _had found him once again... The woman with the creamy red hair and the golden crown, the beautiful green eyes spread herself out in front of him, fear obvious in her still teary eyes. The red dress, that still seemed too small and revealing for her body, suddenly spread out like enormous, red wings. "No... Kai." She stopped the pull... She stopped his death... He knew who she was, and he knew she loved him more than anyone... And that the cold being he was trying to leave now, the other, cold Kai, had left her despite her love for power._

_He opened his mouth to speak, and found no words in his mouth. Closing and opening a couple of times, he formed a single word. "Wh... Why?" It wasn't what he wanted to say, but it was enough for him. She just gave him a small smile and didn't move, the light nothingness still blinding around them both. _

"_Wait..." The voice was incredibly beautiful, yet harsh and growling and rough like an animal's. "Kai... You're not bad... Kai... Don't let go. I beg of you not to let go of yourself! You are warm too, Kai, no matter what you think... You would never be able to get my love if you weren't warm... Look to the past to understand yourself, I don't want you away before you have understood your reasons. Fight the light!" He still felt the pull, but her words got to him, and finally he began to struggle. He felt himself go backwards, he knew he went backwards without knowing... But the light didn't give up, and he didn't have any strength... The woman's gaze dropped as the tears streamed down her green eyes, and her dress slimmed in to her body again as she moved to the side and disappeared again..._

_Something wet dropped on his face, and Kai blinked confusedly. Wh-what? He looked around, but of course, there was nothing that could cause him to feel wet... there was a little drop on his cheek, and he lifted his hand and tried to brush it off to no avail. When he once again let his own hand drop, something else... a finger with hard-skinned tips... stroked his cheek... Everything slowly grew black again and he began falling, but just when his back hit the floor again, he went back where he came from... _

… _Beep … Beep, gasp … _

"_Sorry... I shouldn't cry on you..." A man... Kai felt him stroke a stray hair away from his face, but the touch weren't as he had expected. It felt nice, warm and friendly. "I only got to know you were in a coma today... Actually, they didn't allow me to visit you, but I just couldn't let it be... I knocked out the guard in front of my cell and found my way here..." Another wet drop landed on the slate's face again, and got stroked off. "Again, I'm sorry for crying on you."_

… _Gasp … Gasp, beep … _

"_Voltaire is going to be mad at me for this, but I had to see you... Your journal is on the table... I don't know if you can hear me or if you would even want to hear me, but I don't think anyone has told you exactly what is wrong with you, so I think I will read it out loud... Just in case you can actually hear me... Wait a minute..." Footsteps walking away... _

… _Beep, gasp … Gasp, beep, gasp …_

_The footsteps got close again. "Here." Sounds of paper getting turned. "You have gotten the arm smashed... They amputated it, and I think they were right to. Sorry to say it, and though I don't really know you, I guess you would have glared at me for saying that. I don't expect you to be like Voltaire, but hell, I would get mad, too, if someone chopped off my arm without me giving permission, and they say you have 'the glare'. But the arm's bones seem to have ended as hundreds of small fragments, so... I can't see what they want to do about that problem, though..." _

… _Gasp, beep …_

"_Your ribcage has cracked, too. The damage was fatal, apparently impossible for the body to rebuild... Seems they have successfully replaced the destroyed ones with ribs made of aluminum or some other metal... The bones in your legs were broken, too, but it seems they have healed already. But... Oh." The slate didn't like the hesitation in the unknown voice, and he tried to tell it, but his body still wasn't responding to his mind... or whatever he was. He felt the hand again, brushing over his forehead and cheek, and another drop fell down on his face, this time on his eyelid._

… _Beep, gasp …_

"_You... You have hit you head pretty hard. They don't know the amount of the damage... Basically, you might have ended up with no ability to walk, talk or understanding anything... The damage in the Broca's area is worst, and as far as I can see here, it is the area of the brain which produces speech... You might be unable to verbally communicate from now on, if you should wake up... Are you humming?" The voice, that had until then sounded dead, came to life, as the owner of the voice got a positive surprise. It also surprised Kai, and he began listening too..._

… _Gasp, beep, gasp …_

_Yes, he was humming... It was that melody... That melody from then... He fell again, just as he heard Boris's voice destroy the joy the unknown man had shown. "Oh, what have we here?" Nothing could ruin the mood as that voice._

"_What does it look like?" the man that had read him his journal for him said, his voice fading fast as Kai left them._

"_It looks like a prisoner has gotten out of his cell to me, and has broken in to a hospita__l-room with__out permissi-__…" __He hit the floor again, as hard as always__, while a scene of a weakly-lit room. He got up from his position of the none-existent floor and looked around in a fami_liar scene. Max's house, the living room, the party a few days before life got turned upside down. Second Kai entered the room, soaking wet, and went to the corner after everyone noticing him because of his loud teammates. This Kai didn't seem to like this at all, and he packed himself away behind his invisible walls.

Then, the cause of the scene appeared. Someone just plugged a CD inside the machine, ending the argument, and the song beg_un... The song his body had been humming without him knowing. This was the first time he had heard it, and a small smile appeared on his face as a yo_ung girl slowly moved over and sat silently beside second Kai on the couch. The last chorus began, and second Kai was too concentrated on the song to notice... Or, he might also just be ignoring her.

"_Here's a lullaby to close your eyes / Goodbye / It was always you that I despised / I don't feel enough for you to cry / Oh well / Here's a lullaby to close your eyes / Goodbye / Goodbye / Goodbye._"

Second Kai opened his eyes, and though he hid it well, the surprise of have gotten company was visible for a short millisecond. Then, he was back to a mask of indifference. They began talking, but the more interesting was that others had come, and they danced and laughed and had a great amount of fun. But the two sitting in the corner didn't not look to have a great amount of fun, was simply talking to each other, until Hillary came over to them. After a short exchange of words, second Kai stood from the sofa and disappeared out of sight. Max followed him, but came into sight again after a short while, and then, a Kai in dry clothes came into the room again, his wet clothes in hand.

It didn't seem as though he asked much when he stole the girl he had talked with's plastic-bag and beers. He stuffed the clothes down there, and just about to sit down again, Hillary appeared again. _Get over there, he demanded, suddenly curious. He remembered the day without remembering it fully, and he wanted to know what was happening. In a blur, he stood beside the three persons, only barely able to hear them through the noise of dancers and music. The following scene caused him to smile, though he tried not to. Cause it pissed o_ff his other self.

"-dance with me?" Hillary asked, looking extremely anxious as she waited for his answer. But every idiot would know.

"No." Short, but precise.

"Oh, come on, Kai!" the girl said, pushing him into the arms of Hilary. The girl froze in surprise, obviously in love with the slate-haired teen, but Kai didn't notice. He just glared at the girl in front of him, anger only visible in the eyes.

"Thank you, Annabella," he said, giving out the name of the unknown girl, but Annabella glared back at him as he moved away from the brunette girl as if she was some kind of poison he didn't want to have on him. _Not nice._

"Stop calling me that," Anna said and dragged the slate out on the dance floor, having Hillary in her other hand. The two girls began dancing with him between them, and though it was impossible to hear them now, it was obvious he was trying to get them off him with his words... until a sudden change in his facial expression came upon him, and Anna stopped dancing to talk to him. Showing the most utter disgust, second Kai nodded while talking, and Anna pushed her way over to her beers and looked over her shoulder. The slate held five fingers up in the air, and the girl, muttering to herself, took five beers in her arm and walked over to them again.

Kai appeared to be an exceptional drinker and threw the five beers down his throat through the straw in a minute or two. Then, he pushed them in the arms of the girls... and stood for a little while with closed eyes as Annabella got back to the couch with the empty cans and got back to him just as second Kai began moving to the beat with more than swaying. They began dancing together, but after only two songs, Anna dragged them off the dance floor. She and Hillary were both sweating, while Kai didn't look like he had been dancing at all... _But this wasn't part of the blurred memory Kai remembered. Over there! he demanded again, and a second later, he stood b_y the three just as second Kai took his one arm around Hillary and gave her a long and passionate kiss on the lips. Her eyes went wide in surprise before they closed, and her face reddened fast as she let him kiss her. Then, he finally pulled away.

"Thanks for the dance," he said and winked to her, then let go with the expression as if it was the most normal thing in the world to attack another person with your lips. The brunette slowly opened her eyes, then they widened in shock again. She couldn't even remember when he had last touched her freely, and now, Kai, the one and only Kai, master of being cold and look emotionless, had taken her in his arms and kissed her.

"Don't I get one? I was dancing with you too, you know," Annabella asked, and it was clear in her tone of voice that she was joking. But either Kai was too drunk to see it or didn't really care if it was for fun or not.

"Sure," the slate said, took an arm around her passionately, stroke her bangs out of her face. Just as she was about to pull away, uninterested in letting her first kiss slip to a stranger she honestly didn't really know, he took her closer to his body, and their lips met. Reacting exactly like Hillary, then amber-eyes girl's eyes first widened in shock, then closed as the face became many deep shades of red. Just then, Tyson, Max and Kenny popped up from nowhere.

"Wow, how much have he been drinking?" Tyson asked, and Kai, who had also closed his eyes as he invaded the girl's mouth, opened his violets and watched his teammates. But their appearance didn't make him pull away, and he closed his eyes again to finish his doing with them as surprised spectators.

"You know that was my first kiss, don't you?" Anna said, but she looked too surprised and confused to decide if she should slap him in the face or not. Kai grinned as he brushed her hair out of her face again. She blushed even more.

"Hope I didn't disappoint you, then," he said in gentleman tone and a gentleman look on his face, and the deep red got even deeper. The shook her head fast, and she and Hillary both stood and stared at him with wide eyes and red faces, feeling both hot and surprised and confused. Finally, he turned to Tyson, and though he seemed like such a different person, his drunk self still managed to keep control. But the corners of his mouth pointed upwards and his eyes shined with positive feelings. "Seven beers, five of them with a straw..." The violet eyes shot over to Kenny, who hadn't been drinking even a full can of beer yet, and he lifted himself up and held his head high.

"Do what's best for you, Kenny, and get a little to drink. Or else, I will force fifteen beers down your throat and force you to run a hundred laps tomorrow morning." So, he still had a bit of his normal personality left... or something like that. He still didn't seem normal, but was still threatening enough to get Kenny over to the fastest beer and empty it as fast as he was able to. "Good boy, Kenny... Max, wanna dance?" He didn't wait for an answer, just dragged the laughing blond out on the dance floor, and the blond had just gotten a grip in Tyson's arm and got him with the two.

_Kai was positively surprised. Though it required him to be drunk, his other self was able to be warm, as _she _had promised. He watched hi_mself laugh, smile, and every time someone was extra nice, no matter their gender, he gave them a kiss. Max, as the cheery, nice guy that always helped others, even got to be kissed three times, all the times leaving him with the same expression and reaction as the two girls. Seemed Kai had some skills he never had used.

It took a lot more beers before Kai finally fell unconscious on the couch, by far the drunkest person in the room. His teammates looked at him with smiles on their faces, a_nd Kai was just beside them with the exact same look on his face as he watched his colder self sleep. He wanted to know how a person who could be so passionate and so happy when he let go of the control could be that cold. But for now, he just listen_ed to his friends while they watched him.

"We should get him home," Max commented, his face slightly red from the last kiss merely five minutes away. "He's going to have a bad headache and regret everything tomorrow, and I'm not interested in having the cocktail of grumpy Kai, hangover and bad party-mistakes in my house when I wake up tomorrow..." Tyson turned to the blond.

"I think you are more afraid he will wake up and come to your bed while you sleep," the champion said, laughing with Kenny. Neither of them had been blessed with Kai's lips. "He did you three times, didn't he? I think he's hiding a crush on you..." The two boys laughed even harder, and though he blushed, Max couldn't help laughing too.

"True, I wouldn't want him to sneak up on me!" The blond nudged the champion with a laugh. "But you don't know what you're missing out from, that guy has a true talent." The three boys nearly fell to the floor, laughing so hard their sleeping, older teammate began moving in his sleep with an annoyed expression on his face.

"Uh, quiet down," Kenny whispered, and they nodded. "We give him a little time to sleep, then we follow him ho-... Guys, where do Kai live?" The three glanced to each other with anxious looks, a_nd Kai decided he didn't want to see them struggle with that problem, as it wasn't interesting anymore... He just didn't know what he should think of now._

_The scene disappeared without his wish, and his eyes widened when he was afraid he lost control. He hadn't thought of anything, and ye_t, a scene with plains filled with tall grass had grown. Tala stood, staring at a pickup with his blue eyes ice-cold. By the pickup-truck the redhead was glaring at, Bryan was obviously thinking hard as he leaned towards the stranded car. They had a problem, and it was pretty clear that it was the cars that didn't do as they wanted.

_An unbelievable joy filled Kai as he watched the redhead. It was obvious it was after they had gotten into Voltaire's new world, not only because Kai was able to see people from many different countries that he knew the two Blitzkrieg-Boys never had known before, but also their state of clothes and the obvious lack of bathing. Though he felt a little bad about it, it amused him to see Tala's hair down in that way. The redhead used more time on his hair than the girls he used it to impress. Kai watched as a group of three came towards the two, Mathilda, Hillary and Mystel, but..._

_Something els_e_, a weird phenomenon, became more interesting. Under the shadow of a tree, away from the sun, the four monsters sat. And though they were a weird thing themselves, the truly interesting was beside them. Kai had seen their bitbeasts before, when they had battled them on their journey across Europe, and now he saw them a second time. For beside every of the monsters, their bitbeast sat, as clear as if it had been out of the bit._

_Get over there! he demanded, and reappeared again in front of the four monsters. They were talking to each other, and he was close enough to hear it, but the monster-bitbeasts were staring at him, three of them grinning at him, while the werewolf-beast seemed to see him as a threat and growled. The vampire-beast laid a hand on the werewolf's shoulder, and the werewolf calmed, though it was still eying the comatose person suspiciously._

_The monsters themselves didn't notice him or their bitbeasts' behavior. They ke_pt talking for themselves, muttering things to each other that got them laughing or growling. Though, most of the time, they looked utterly bored. "Wonder what they'll do when they get to Paris," the vampire said to the other, laying flat on the ground with his head on a root.

"Don't care." Sanguinex's little brother sat with his head on his knees, eyes closed and an annoyed look on his face. "But what I do care about is if I get a chance to swing at that bastard again. He dares to make me look weak!" A look of amusement came over the rest of their faces, an_d the monster-bitbeasts grinned at the werewolf, who sent its mates angry glares. _"That Bryan is going down as soon as I find his weak spot."

"You shouldn't bother," the mummy grins, him lying like the vampire, though instead of a tree-root, he used Zomb's legs as a pillow. Zomb was the only one sitting nearly normally, but he still had his legs stretched out and leaned against the tree while his eyes was closed. He was half asleep. "That guy is strong as a bear, and I remember last time you fought a full-grown one." The rest of the monsters laughed, leaving the werewolf alone with his anger and embarrassment...

But just then, Brooklyn passed the group of lazy monsters, and once again, an unk_nown phenomenon caught Kai's attention... Behind the prodigy, Zeus walked like the monster's bitbeasts laid, the King of Darkness about ten feet tall... But unlike the monsters, the King of Darkness had a hand on Brooklyn's shoulder, touching his master... And if Kai wasn't mistaken, Brooklyn's hand was caressing that clawed one as if it was a pet and all visible. The monsters obviously couldn't see their own bitbeasts, but the prodigy... Could? Could he really?  
_

The ill-tempered monster stared at his mates before he closed his eyes, as if he saw a memory all over again. As Brooklyn disappeared over the hill, a small smile broadened on the werewolf's face, and a laugh that drowned the rest of the monsters' came out of his mouth, a_s Kai demanded: Follow Brooklyn_. "POHAHAHAHAHAHA! YEAH, THAT MUST HAVE BEEN THE STUPIDEST THING I HAVE _EVER _DONE! POHAHAHAHAHAHAAAWH!"

* * *

So, I have a lot of screaming finishes in this chapter, don't I? Two in one chapter is more than I have had in all the other chapters, isn't it? Yes it is.

By the way, up until now, I have used their monsters personal laugh from the series, but since Lupinex is a moody, he actually didn't have a personal laugh. So if you think POHAHAHAHAHAHA is familiar, I think I stole it from the Bleach-manga after a friend of mine showed it to me for fun (and we had talked about his lack of laugh, since she reads the story too and is the one who wanted the monsters in this thing) and we agreed that it fits the little werewolf... Don't you agree? xD

Hope you like the chapter, it was fun writing it! xD Enjoy in joy, my friends ^^


	15. Feelings

So, I love vacations, cause I have so much time ^^ I write and write and write and ride my horse and write and write and go to fitness and then write a little more. So, I live my life as I have always wanted to. Hurray for vacations and no stress!

Disclaimer: Don't own, stop asking -.-'

Warning: I kill off my characters, and some scenes might not be well for the child's eye, but it is rated M, isn't it? But the amount of those scenes will be small.

Reviews:

My Own Demise: Just glad to have you back (if you can say it like that xD). You always give me a good laugh and is so freaking loveable! But... woah, am I going to answer all your reviews? o.O For a second I thought no, but I feel bad not to when you are so great! xD So, first review for chapter 12: HAHA, I succeeded getting you to like him again just to smash him and crash him and crush him and... what rhymes with crush? Hmm... Anyway, Hillary gets her punishment ^^ Kinda, later, something... But yeah, Kai's is a genius, just thought I should use it ^^ Chapter 13: I love when you kill Boris! Just love it, it's so inspiring in my own hate and want to kill him ^^ But should you play dead? Well, I lean to both, cause bears aren't scavengers and if you looked death, it wouldn't be a problem. But if you don't? Can't the bear smell if you're dead? Something like that? If you succeeded your dead-act, then you would survive, but god-freaking-damn, shouldn't it know you are breathing? But katchiiing, you were right ^^ The whities, yeah, here is a cookie *gives cookie* So, now you have gotten your prize (or price?) for guessing correctly, I'll say yes, adult nekos. Weird, huh? But Kai? Well, Kai? ... Kai? Kai? Kai? I'm beginning to sound stupid, but the explanation-thingy-something is kinda in this chapter... If I was able to get it unrevealed well enough... something...

GatewaysDiary: Yeah, the dedication! I did it... cause I already knew you would be happy about it, and I thought I would make it all even happier if I even gave you the chapter! So you don't want to understand Kai's dad? Oh, now you made him sad... Or something. Anyway, me kill Kai? … Noooo, I haven't already killed most of my faves or plan to kill the rest of them, should I kill my top faves? The ones that die is my hates... and those that fits... and those I love ^^ (I answered anyway, sorry xD) But my white demon will explain everything right in this chappie, so just read on ^^ I love your Meltdown-Boris, btw ^^ Anyway, wanna read on? I'll let ya, then! ... just realized it didn't make any sense ...

So, that's that, now we go to the story ^^

* * *

Feelings

* * *

Tala had left after they finally had calmed him down. And he had left without Bryan. It didn't surprise the emerald, every time Tala got really furious, he didn't want to see anyone until he was finally thinking straight again. So, Bryan expected his superior to come into the nekos camp in the morning, smiling widely and in one of his better moods. It was how a fight amongst their team always had ended, the center of the fight, a fierce and feisty redhead, getting into one of his freaky moods after sulking by himself for an hour or two. Or whatever he did.

But Bryan was in the nekos custody until the morning, where Tala appeared with the most happy smile with the leaders of their own group, announcing that the best option for everyone, since they all were against Boris and Voltaire, would be to live together. He also said it would be irresponsible for the adult neko-jin to let teenagers that didn't know anything about life or survival take care of themselves. The redhead was a clever one in his persuasion, and he was poking to their conscience.

Since both the neko-jins and Bryan rose with the sun, everyone was awake to hear the redhead's little speech, and as always, he got people convinced to think his ideas were great. Then, the redhead sat down by the youngsters fire, the one where the teenagers and younger warmed themselves to let the adults decide. That was also where the still-bandaged Bryan was, and though everyone nearly expected the redhead to avoid or ignore his teammate...

He didn't. "Hi, Bryan," the wolf said and sat down beside the gray-haired boy, taking an arm around him. "It isn't bad, is it?" The blue eyes looked the shoulder and the rest of the upper body of his teammate, an apologizing smile on his lips. There was a reason he didn't get to find out yesterday – he was too busy trying to kill the wounded.

"Shoulder got dislocated, it will take about three weeks in the sling, but they say it won't bother me anymore, except I have bigger risk of it happening again. Else, it's just claw-wounds, it'll heal. It doesn't hurt."

Taking one last look at his teammate, the redhead turned to the nekos, looking the surviving kids over. The oldest were Rei, Lee, Mariah and a handsome girl (in Tala's opinion) they did not know. Else, there were six kids from the ages 5-12, all of them staring at either Tala or Bryan as if they were monsters... The redhead ignored them, Bryan stared back with dull eyes, the lack of emotions only scaring the kids even more. Tala began to wonder if the emerald actually had fun, but found it an impossibility. The emerald couldn't have fun, not in his... 'state'.

"So..." The silence was irritating the normally very-social-when-not-competing Tala, and he looked for something to talk about. But the nekos weren't the ones he were good with. Not that he was good with any of the professional bladers at all, but he was able to talk with the rest. It was only good none of the All Starz had gotten out, that would have been disaster. "So... How did you survive? I thought the only adults still alive were Boris' people... And how the hell could you get away?" The elder of the youngest nekos shared a look, but Tala didn't back off. Of course it was a touchy subject, but he had to know! **(1)**

"Well... We aren't exactly human. That sound didn't infect animals, and we are in between the categories 'human' and 'animals'. Only a few of the oldest lost consciousness." It was Mariah talking, and Bryan turned his eyes away from the kids to the pink-haired, frowning. Something didn't fit in his mind.

"What sound?" the emerald asked, and the nekos looked at him with surprise. Bryan's frown deepened.

"The sound, that drillingsound that made everyone die," Lee said, beginning to frown too. "It was pretty clear when it happened. Like a when a drill is set against a stone-wall and started. A very screeching sound, not very pleasant. That was the only thing bothering the animals, that sound." He didn't see any recognition of the phenomenon in the faces of the humans, and he shared another look with the others of the teenagers. "You really have no idea?"

"I have an idea, but it isn't a sound. We didn't hear anything when we got attacked by the headache," Bryan said, and now that they were talking about a headache anyway, he still had one. For him, who normally had headaches only once a year, the feeling of a headache was not only unpleasant, but also scary. Also... Something inside him that wasn't the monsters of self-disgust or the the black flames of hate was bothering him... Pressure, an enormous pressure inside. Wonder if it had something to do with the headache? Or... it might just be the bear-attack's sideeffects. Though that sounded extremely weird.

"Well..." The unknown girl looked hesitant and insecure, not knowing these two weirdos. Tala saw the insecurity in her eyes and sent her his flirting-smile. As he had guessed, it boosted her confidence a little as she blushed, and she went on. Though, she still ignored Bryan's emotionless stare, as he didn't try to look feeling right now... _did_ he have fun scaring them? "We also have a better hearing than humans, along with a few other things, so that might be the reason why you didn't hear anything while we did." The emerald seemed to think about it for a while, then nodded.

"Would be my guess, too," he mumbled, only for Tala to hear. The wolf looked at him for a moment, then nodded too and gave her another smile. Since she wasn't used to boys looking at her that way, Mariah, whom sat beside the wolf, turned to him and gave him a small whack over the head. Bryan chose not to interfere, despite his captain getting hurt. The small, pink-haired girl was too weak to be a threat, so he left it for Tala to take care of. And the redhead sent her a glare as first defense in the up-coming battle.

The golden eyes of the girl shot lightning, and the blue eyes of the boy were icy. "Don't play tricks on Xiu, bastard."

"What if I actually _do _think she is beautiful, pinky?" The golden eyes of Xiu's widened just the slightest bit.

"That only makes you shallow and hollow not to look on the inside, firehead."

"That she blushes and gets confused just shows that she's quiet. That's all I need to known to get interested, pinky."

"All you need to know to get interested is how she looks, perv."

"May be I'm actually going to try to get to know her, pinky."

"Then do so, idiot."

"I would do so if you'd let me, pinky." The male-nekos and Xiu were beginning to look at him with amusement, and Bryan even bothered setting up a slightly amused smile, even though he actually didn't feel it. The wolf grinned at them, and he would have wagged his tail if he had had one. "I just don't feel creative this early in the morning, and pinky _do _fit her, doesn't it? In more than one way, even," he said, laughing, getting another glare from the pink-haired neko. Then he let the blue eyes go over the unknown neko-girl again, following the features on her body and face, the glint in the shy, golden eyes and the brown-black hair. She was definitely girlfriend-material, and he hadn't had a girl for months.

It would be best if she was one he wanted to keep, which meant a shy, nice, sweet and quiet, yet amusing, girl would be his best choice. The ones in their own group that was like that didn't fit his picky taste of women, since Mariah had had right when she assumed he also wanted the looks, but this one might be good enough. So what if she was a little dirty and ragged, he was looking even worse, and she still blushed and smiled when he flirted with her. That meant he just had to make sure the personality he wanted really _did_ fit her, then he had her for his own. Cause the wolf needed a woman to get rid of his loneliness.

The others was oblivious to his thoughts, since Bryan was the only one who knew how the redhead hooked a girl every night or a second when he felt a little lonely just to dump them again when he wanted to. The redhead was a restless character, but the girls he found at the parties weren't the ones he preferred. The ones he wanted was the ones that could look over the tip of their own nose and thought of more than the image in their mirror. So, he had changed girl on daily basis before everything fell apart, as the wild badboy he was known to be. He fit this role well.

"What happened to the rest of you?" Tala then asked, and the nekos all flinched. "Alright, we won't talk about that, then." The redhead knew things about not wanting to talk. He let the nekos decide what they wanted to ask, since he had been the one sending all the questions and leading the conversation up until now. But the blue eyes wasn't concentrating on the others, but instead sought out his group-members. Over at the other fire, Falak was leading the conversation, and it seemed to go well. No, they didn't need him as they had a few weeks ago.

"So, how have your time been after the mass-death?" Mariah tried, successfully getting the redhead's attention again. She had found out Bryan wasn't the most talkative person, and that Tala was very social when he let down his guard and let himself smile. The blue eyes shifted slightly, then nodded and shrugged, as if he agreed to talk about it.

"We were 'gathered' while we were unconscious. Woke up in total darkness in a cell in a giant, black building. It was like a pre-state of the abbey, but with much less beating and far fewer consequences of losing a battle... I most admit I found myself more bored and even enjoying the stay a little, considering what I thought when I first found out who was behind it all. I didn't have to worry about how the hell we got money enough for the next meal. I got whipped as one of the first things, and I got a little sick, but as soon as that was over with, it was nearly enjoyable."

The nekos watched him a little. He really didn't hide anything, did he? "So... You got whipped, and yet it wasn't that bad?" Lee asked, looking like Tala was absolute insane. The redhead just shrugged, looking like it was nothing. Cause nothing it was, in his head at least. As he had said already, the stay in the black building was nothing at all.

"I got whipped once in half a year or how long I have been there. In the actual abbey, I would get whipped once a month, if I was lucky. It's nothing. Really, it isn't. Stop looking at me like that." The redhead began scowling when they didn't stop their staring. "You know, the whips weren't even the worst part of the abbey. There is a reason why we ended up as we did... For God's sake, stop looking at me like that!" When the look at him got even more horrified, the redhead suddenly stood, growling and howling and turning away. With long strides, he disappeared in the woods.

The surprised, unbelieving stare turned to Bryan's emotionless face, and the emerald shrugged their stares off him, not really getting uncomfortable under their gazes. "Tala can be very emotional when he lets down his guard and begin to talk. Just excuse him, he'll be back in a minute or two, probably smiling and forgetting what had bothered him."

They still looked at him with surprise and horror. "Bryan... I think you are misunderstanding our glare..." Rei said.

"No I'm not. The abbey doesn't bother me, but it bothers Tala a very lot, I try not to speak of it too much. My captain is mostly only emotional when the topic is the abbey, so to not hurt him, I keep quiet."

They all blinked, and then Mariah frowned. "It doesn't bother you?" She and Lee both agreed on not liking the gray-haired a lot, but that didn't make them consider him emotionless. Which, unfortunately, was exactly was he was. But the emerald turned his head to look for the redhead, knowing the captain wouldn't want him to talk about it. But they wanted to know and... It gave him _something_ inside to scare these people. And what was more scary than the truth?

He turned back to them, and when he did, there was something more in his eyes than just the cold, dull lack of emotion. Right under the surface, but to far away for strangers to notice, a glint of... _something_... "The abbey left me with nothing else than a shell of flesh and blood, and even that I'm not really able to connect to. I don't feel." They had been able to believe Tala since they had seen Bryan's scars, but this... no. "It's true." Well, his voice _was _emotionless. "What other reason would there be for anyone to meet a bear head on than the inability to feel fear? I'm not stupid, I'm just unable to go against my logic and follow my instincts, cause I don't have the feelings that guide the instincts. The abbey is a place that destroys you, and how you get destroyed is all up to Boris."

They were silent until footsteps told them Tala was back, and as Bryan had foreseen, his often darkened and sad face was shining brightly with a smile. But it froze a little when he saw the faces of his mates. "Bryan, you didn't tell them the little story about your scars, did you?" he asked, looking very worried and slightly afraid. Bryan shook his head.

"But, I think if you should ever, _ever_, want to pour it out on someone, I think one of these would be a good victim. Their average IQ seems to be twice of the one in our own group..." It was obvious the redhead was about to reprimand the other for talking about his group-mates like that, and Bryan winced a little. "I'm just stating the facts, captain, these have more pride and more respect than our own. If you should want to talk, they would be best choice. Though I would prefer Rei or Xiu."

"You are weird, you know that?" The emerald looked at him with a you-only-just-realized?-expression, and the redhead rolled his eyes right back at him. "You sometimes act like you are the genius of emotions, like when you talked about Kai to me to cheer me up, but the ironic, annoying fact you really have no idea. And yet, it seems you are right a lot of the time. But I _don't_ need to talk about it. I'm fine, alright?" Though the words would just have been confusing before, they confirmed Bryan's words from before.

"Yeah, that's why you always try to avoid the subject..." Bryan mumbled, sounded nearly a little offended.

Tala stared at him. "Bry, are you alright?" Apparently, the others didn't matter to the redhead at all. "You are acting... strange..." He looked a little worried, but his mind was bouncing, and his eyes turned to the group at the other fire. "Oh, they are done talking! Wonder what they got to agree o- … Bryan, weren't you supposed to be there with them?" the redhead deadpanned, already knowing the answer he would get when he saw the gray-haired shrink.

"Well, I just didn't feel like it," his teammate said, his green, emotionless eyes begging for forgiveness. "I couldn't let you stay here, with them, without any protection! I don't trust them to take care of you..." Falak, the rest of the council and the leading adult neko-jins came towards them while Tala looked like he was just about to chase Bryan again. Red hair warns burning temper, we all should know that.

"I told you, I can take care of myself! Besides, how should you be able to protect me when you're all wrapped up in bandages?" His voice was icy as he leaned over his teammate, and the bigger of them made himself as small as possible. Like a dog getting scolded, exactly as Tala had explained it to Hillary once. But that redhead could really look very scary when he wanted to. "For what reason do you think I put you in that co-... Oh." Not words for spectators...

"Are we coming at a bad time?" one of the nekos... did he look like that Gary-guy?... asked. When Tala just shrugged, knowing the eldest nekos were beginning to think he was a bad-tempered problem, the neko continued talking, more to his own youngsters than the two not-well-known-but-with-a-bad-reputation-Blitzkrieg-Boys. "We 'join forces'. We get men enough to protect ourselves, since we now have too few men to get an effective attack on Boris, and they get people with a lot of experience in the ways of living in the forest. We move to their camp, since that's only fair when we are only 43, while they are about 200. Go over and help getting the tents down." The teenagers nodded, all of them used to work hard to survive. It wasn't a question if you should do anything, just a question of how fast it was done.

They were effective, and it only took about 15 minutes before they were ready to move out. From the other group, everyone else than Falak moved back to their own. Falak was to lead the nekos' way while the rest explained the decision. Enrique, on the other hand, had something other he was more interested in knowing when they came into view from the camp.

"Bryan, what happened to you?" the Italian asked, and Bryan reacted by looking down his body like the bandages under his destroyed t-shirt was a whole new experience. Then, when he looked up again, he shrugged with the healthy shoulder.

"He attacked a bear," Tala said in a dark voice, looking like he had just before he had begun to chase after his teammate again. But before he got angry enough to do so, the wolf turned to the blond Italian again in an attempt not to try and kill his teammate again. It really wasn't good for him if the nekos continued to think of him as bad-tempered and violent, both having shot one of theirs and attempted to murder one of his own... "That's why I was so freaking mad last night. Who the hell thinks they can survive fighting a bear, seriously?"

"Did he attack a bear?" Out of nowhere, Lupinex popped up, his fangs showing as he looked at Bryan. When he got the nod he wanted from Bryan, and burst out laughing his POHAHAHA-laugh before walking/flowing over to his mates again. "See? I'm not the only one! I'm not that stupid! POHAHAHAHAHA!" The laugh was the only think, in the end, that the rest were able to hear, but it was shortlived. The rest of the monster-group just grinned at the werewolf, and the mummy said something that made the werewolf flung himself at the toilet-paper-man, trying to get back at the words.

"What are they doing here?" a voice asked, and they all turned to see the nekos come through the bushes, Rei in front and the one that was asking, since he was about the one who had bad memories of the weird half-humans.

There was silent for about ten second, since no-one had gotten to know they might meet someone they knew, Tala being busy growling, sulking and pouting the night before to fill them in on every detail other than 'Bryan is an idiot' and 'there is neko-jins in the forest'. Then, after the ten seconds, a cry of joy cut through the low whistling of the wind. "REEI!" Tyson ran from his place near the others and took his arms around the tiger. "God, I've missed you!" he said, and it was obvious the only reason why the dragon didn't get any response was that Rei fought back a sob of happy crying. "Thought you were dead..." Tyson mumbled, his voice shaking slightly as he pulled back from his friend.

"If I was, why should I have left to the village? You think we had nothing planned now that we knew something was going to happen?" Rei said, ignoring the tears in his eyes as he hugged Hillary too. He was smiling widely, true happiness reaching him for the first time since they departed. If only Daichi and Max was there... And Kenny...

And Kai...

* * *

_Leaving the monsters behind, Kai stood by the hill. He had expected Brooklyn to continue walking even after getting out of sight, but the prodigy had decided the perfect sleeping-spot was right at the top and laid nearly invisible in the tall grass. A rabbit had already decided to keep him company, ignoring Zeus standing by the white figure as a contrast in both color and appearance, the black feathers and hostile claws and horns an opposite to the peaceful white that was snoring on the soft grass floor. Birds followed the rabbit soon, to Kai's surprise..._

_Kai had forgotten how his relationship with the teen in front of him was, but Zeus was still making him uncomfortable. But since Zeus was looking like a beast, it was no surprise and didn't necessarily mean he actually remembered his last encounter with the bitbeast. The terrifying, green eyes of the King of Darkness turned to him, then back to his wielder. "Master Brooklyn, wake up," the bitbeast said, gently poking to the white one with the hoof on one of his forelegs._

"Hmp." The citrine woke up with a start and blinked a few times, looking up at the masked head over him, then stretching despite the fact that he had only been lying down for maybe a minute. He let his hand stroke the rabbit lazily. "What for, Your Majesty?" he asked, looking around with his normal, lazy look, until he saw what his bitbeast had wanted him to react to. He didn't seem surprised. "Oh, hello, Kai. How did you end in a coma? I didn't foresee that." He hadn't known, and he was still calm?

_The slate opened his mouth, but no real sound got out of his mouth. He knew what he wanted o say, but he was unable to say it. It took a lot of effort to say just one word. "... Ah … I..." _The citrine looked at him for a while, waiting for the answer with an unusual expression. He was thoughtful and hushed the animals away, something no-one would ever belie_ve if Kai told them he had_. _"... Got... Cru... Ah... _Crushed_..." The annoyance in his voice was clear, and he tried hard to form the words right. "... Bah... By... Ah... Machine..."_

"Why are you having trouble talking?" _As if I know! _"That's not what I normally experience when I talk to people in coma... Do you still like who you are when living? Or, well... How to say...? Do you remember yourself?" _Kai looked at him weird, before shaking his head to say no. _"Alright. That means your body have been out for at least a month. You're pretty skilled, but considering who you are, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Most people are so self-centered and boring that they gets stuck above their body, looking down on it for all the months they are unconscious. They don't use the opportunities being free from space and time...

Though, since you can't keep all the memories you get from it, it's probably not that much they miss by doing that... You see, when you wake up, all you have from your 'travels' won't be very clear..." The normally pretty silent teenager was talking a pretty damn lot. "So, what have you come past that you are still able to remember? … Oh, no, forget I asked, you would just disappear if you began to think about it... Coma-people is just so interesting!" _Do Brooklyn – _the_ Brooklyn that never worked or trained and had the lazy look – sound excited? Yeah, he does... _"But do you want me to help you? I know how you can get yourself to wake up again. Just tell me if you want to know how, but since you are as good at controlling the coma as you are, you probably have something to do. Though she is invisible, I can feel Dranzer near."

_Kai didn't know what he should do with all that information, so he just blinked. "... Ho... How... AH!" He made an angry sound, once again not really an actual sound. It wasn't like something he would normally say. "... How... Do you... Nn... Ah... Know... Sssso... Much?" Cause he did know much. He knew things no ordinary person knew._

"I don' know more than others, I just have knowledge in other things. I'm born a little different... but I think you know that already. Or else, I wouldn't be able to talk to you right now, and also our encounters over time should be quite revealing. But is there anything you want to know? I can't say I know everything, I haven't ever been in a coma myself, but people in comas always seems to come to me." The prodigy leaned back in the grass and stared upwards, treating whatever they were doing like it was everyday-things... Seemed it was, for him at least. "Keep the words simple, you seem to have trouble speaking for some weird reason... Well, just keep it simple, please." Lazy smile... Always lazy smile.

_But all knew Kai was stubborn, and he gritted his teeth, certainly _not _going to 'keep words simple'. But he wasn't really interested in his own situation. "... Hrro... How d... Do..." Zeus turned his green eyes and crowned face towards Kai, and the slate was sure the animal-face smirked at him in a patronizing way... "... The... Ah... Bi-bit-... AH... Bitbeasts...?" But Kai didn't get to finish anything._

"Yeah, you saw the Dark Bladers **(2)** under the tree? And then there is me. Did you notice it doesn't happen to other wielders? Only me and them. I actually know of it." The prodigy smiled up a_t Zeus' face, and the black bitbeast sent a small smile back._ "Normally, that the bitbeast 'appear' beside the blader or human carrier tells that they have an 'unhealthy relationship'. They live in a symbiosis, sometimes benefiting for both sides, sometimes only the bitbeast. Never only for the blader. No matter what, this kind of relationship, where the bitbeast 'appear' to either feed of or give powers, is considered... wrong in the minds of other bitbeasts. And the bitbeasts that makes these relationships with their blader or carrier with or without the blader or carrier knowing... is considered evil bitbeasts, because some thinks it is too much for the human to handle. You have been in one of these relationships with Black Dranzer..." The citrine took his head up and looked around, seemingly straining his eyes, before leaning back again. "And it seems you have reestablished the bond."

_Kai turned to look around, but nothing was there. He looked back and found Zeus staring, not at him this time, but at something that seemed right behind him... Again, he turned to look at whatever it was... and saw some movement in the thin air, like an half-invisible animal was moving. He began staring as hard as he could. Slowly, the green eyes he had seen before, those with sadness and _yet_ no intention of good, appeared. Only those was what he could see... They looked so much like _hers..._ exactly like _hers_... but it was Black Dranzer._

"I will answer before you get to ask, since I didn't really answer the question anyway... Or did I? What was the question? ... Nevermind, I will just tell you anyway, it would be stupid to stop talking here..." Brooklyn was speaking, or rather rambling, still not looking up. "The powers that is getting delivered to or taken from the blader or carrier, or that they share, differs. The first time I met the Dark Blader, they didn't have bandages, furs or fangs. The were normal human; as normal as humans can be when they hungers for revenge. They had only just lost to the Majestics and had only just found together. At the time, they couldn't smile, joke or laugh as they do now... But they had found their bitbeasts. And the bitbeasts were very different from what they are now. The werewolf was a giant, half-dead wolf, the vampire a skinny bat, the mummy a mummified, Egyptian cat and the zombie or Frankenstein-monster or what you would call it... Well, it was a dead rabbit**(3)** no matter what you see it as now. But both the bladers and the bitbeasts have changed a lot, which means the bitbeast are 'changing' the power-flow in both themselves and the bladers. I'm not sure the Dark Bladers are in on the deal, but my guess is that they would change fully into what the bitbeast was – if connected to the bitbeasts long enough. You are always able to discard your bitbeast if you don't like the deal, while the bitbeast can be stuck with it forever. But I think their bitbeast is trying to get human, for some very odd reason..."

The lazy teen sat up a bit again, took an arm up and stroked the bitbeast in front of him, reaching as high up as he could on the hooved leg. He smiled, care and friendship obvious between the two. "Me and Zeus, on the other hand, decided to share all our powers. Since almost everything we can is an ability of us both, like seeing into the future, a few things aren't. I have always had a way with animals, but not until Zeus was I able to tame the wild ones. Me, on the other hand..." The half-lidded eyes stared into the green ones above him. He then shrugged, not seeming to care. "Actually don't know what I give him. But the power to see into the future, the ability to see this part of the world and the communication with the dead gets more powerful when we are together."

_The violet eyes fixated on the teenager in front of him, first widening, then narrowing. If it was the truth, why did he tell anything? Talking with the dead, seeing the future, it all made him look like a freak... But, well, some had always known that kid was a freak. But it still was weird to say anything, especially since Kai hadn't known the most creepy of the ones before... "... Why... do... yy... you say?" the slate asked, his eyes narrowed suspiciously. The an__swer he go_t from the one in front of him was a smile as the other one sat up fully, his legs stretched out the the sides.

"When you wake up and everything I tell you would really matter, you wouldn't remember what I said. You would, if you really fought for it, get a chance to see a glimpse of it, but else, my words don't matter. And since I'm a minimal part of your normal life, that you should get interested in digging this conversation out of the chaos of scenes you will get to see because you are able to control this is... slimmer than slim. Sooo... Have any questions to get on? I won't ask, my questions would be complicated, and knowing you though you don't know you right now, it would make you want to kill me for getting you into such an embarrassing situation. So... ask."

_Yeah, this really is weird... If I can't remember anything, what will ask help me anything? I can't even remember what I was angry about when I wanted to kill my uncle... "... What... will..." I already hate asking a question when it brings me this much trouble, I _would _want to kill him if he I should _answer _a question with the same amount of detail as he answers mine... though most of what I get is just babbling... I weakly remember him as a freak, weird and not very social, and though we may seem to have the same traits, he was... somewhat... my opposite, if my memory is right. Why would he talk that much now? Why use all his energy on talking to me instead of the ones that was _living_? "... It... Heeelp... Mmme?... Wouldn't..."_

_Some_how, Brooklyn was able to see through his words, them not even being halfway at the end. And yet, it wasn't the teen, but th_e bitbeast that answered. "You were close to give up earlier. You stink of death." T_he citrine gave sent a nasty look, one which no awake human had even seen on his face. Specially reserve fo_r The King._

"Speak nicely, Your Majesty," the white one said, then smiled lazily again as he turned attention back to the one in front of him, looking as if he was never disturbed. "As Zeus told, we can both see how close to death you have been. To prevent it to happen, or make it easier for you to go if that was what you should decide, I am going to give you answers and ask you to make an effort to remember what I tell you, as it is both your ticket to the living and dead world. So, ask whatever you want, then I'll fill you in on it. Okay?"

_The slate blinked. Ask? What was he supposed to ask? What was he supposed to know? What was there to know? He only knew one thing he could ask, and he did what he could not to let himself stutter or shake in the voice this time. _

_And it made him look somewhat like the old Kai._

"_Everything."_

The apatite eyes closed in a mix of annoyance and sleepiness, and after a moment, he nodded. "Everything... Right. In the state of a coma, you are loosened from every rule in space and time. That means you can travel from where you want to where you want in the world and year you should want to, but I don't know if you are limited by your own lifespan. If you are only able to see your mother be pregnant with you and not longer back, or if you could actually go all the way back to see the dinosaurs rule the world, I don'y know." The eyes still didn't open as he continued to speak, having a look as if nothing was bothering him. And he really was talkative... "Hmmm... Maybe you could even find life on another planet..." the citrine added thoughtfully, frowning slightly at this new, interesting thought.

But he didn't give anyone time to laugh at his little, last comment as he was at it again. "A person in a coma forgets the personality they have after a few weeks, the exact time different for every individual. It happens to both the ones stuck in the ceiling over their body and the few that, like you, is able to find the way to travel around, so it can't be a cause of looking at yourself and see all your flaws. I believe this is the reason that many people change their personality after having been in a coma for a while. Some is able to regain or keep the personality they had before, though. I don't know when one thing or another happens.

Your mind, though being free in the side-world that is the world of the spirits and Gods, is still attached to your body, and this makes you able to see and hear all the things your body hear. All the information delivered to your body will be stored in your brain, while your mind... maybe this is why the memory is so short and disappears? The mind is able to keep memories, but without the brain as a transformer and storage, the memories collected is faint, unclear and uncertain, with differing precision...

Anyway, as it is still attached to your body, your body's injuries may be the reason why you are unable to speak properly. Your unable to use your left arm, too, right? It looks weird..." _Nod._ "And it got injured?" _Nod._ Lazy smile broadening. "Seems I'm still able to gather information despite that you're unable to speak." _Roll with the eyes. Goddamn annoying idiot.  
_

"The way you move around as the nearly unattached mind is by thought, and since you are not concentrated only on your own body, like Tala was at the time, you can think of other things. Maybe you are just not worried about dying? The dead isn't bad anyway... But anyway, since you aren't interested in the well-being of your body... You can 'travel' just by thinking of a person or scene you saw once. There aren't necessarily a pattern in what you see, if your mind simply think of a person... But you don't have a problem with that, right? You came over to me without needing my help, able to figure out how to move since your feet can't help you. You can change everything for your liking, right? You really are incredible... But I want you to remember, you are actually a _part _of the scene. You aren't just there as a watcher, but in the scene too. Though... Since you can't move things around and such, it doesn't really matter... Hmm...

But, how you die is by letting what you were before you got into the coma go. Leaving, honestly believe that you are leaving. That's how that is done, I think... It's not like I can be sure, I haven't gotten to talk to a coma-person I talked to when they were in a coma after they died... Oh, I just remembered something. You are supposed to do something while you are here... Or in this state, I mean. I don't know what it is, but you should know... Do you know? It is what is supposed to keep you alive here..." _Kai nodded. He knew, though he thought it had disappeared from his unfocused mind, he still knew. He should learn to understand himself, _she_ had told him. _"Good. Well, I have a little more to say...

You can't see other people in coma. I don't know why, but you just can't... Well, that didn't seem to be important..."

The white teen trailed off, and looked thoughtful to remember what he missed. There was something important, but before he could remember what it was, something 'more important' reached the corner of his eyes, and he turned. A smile broadened on his face as he jumped to his feet and walked over towards some big creatures. Horses. They came walking towards him out of nowhere, as he was a magnet of curious beasts. Bu_t for some very, _very_ surprising reason, Kai didn't find it interesting._

"_... How..." It was now that he needed to concentrate, or he wouldn't know the most important thing. How to get back to life. "... Brook... Con... Co... ConcenTRATE." With a mix of anger and irritation over the trouble of speaking, he got the citrine's attention back to himself. But it was obvious the others mind was concentrated on the animals more than the slate, though Kai's life might be on the line. But the slate decided life over pride for a second and degraded himself to a retard, speaking-wise. "... _Life_?" the dark teen sa_id, causing the light one to nod and focus came back in his eyes.

"I can't be sure, since it obviously is impossible for me to talk with someone who had succeeded getting out of a coma and them still remember how and succeeding to get out. But... Concentrate on your body. No matter how boring it is to sit and listen to the machines keeping you alive, and no matter how hard it is for you to keep focus, you will have to _concentrate_. Now..." As if the conversation was done and over with by this moment, the white teen turned away again and approached the horses. "Now, I'm gonna help my friends out with these. Bye, Kai. Remember what I said, and do what you are supposed to do before waking up. I hope you decide to come back to us when you wake up, but your future is quite confusing at the moment."

_The slate nodded, closing his eyes and ready to leave, not even looking over at the dark creature still staying close to the other teen's side. What was he supposed to think to look at his past, as _she_ had asked of him? Then, it struck him like lightning, and he took a deep breath. After their dead in the Abbey! he demanded, and the scene in front of him began to fall into pieces before shattering into nothing. Before he left, though, he was sure he heard Brooklyn..._

"Oh... And Kai, I hope you get to hear this before you leave, it's pretty important, thought you might not be able to use it, I just wanted to point out in any case. Please stay away fr..."

* * *

We all have had those mornings. After a night of restless sleep, you finally wake up in 4 am, convinced it's time to get up. We all have had those annoying mornings, and sometimes you don't even realize the time, so you get up and get dressed, maybe take a shower, before realizing your mistake. We all have tried that, to some degree. Or at least, we all have tried to have trouble falling asleep, maybe even have a headache when we wake up. All have... except for Bryan.

It was his first experience with this kind of sleep. Normally, he slept so quietly that only his calm, even breathing told you he was still alive, as he was safe from dreams and nightmares in his fantasy-less, emotionless world. But this night, a month after he was attacked by the bear and his wound nearly healed, he had been rolling around. It was only by luck that the wolf hadn't woken up as often as the emerald had. Now, it was finally morning, the sun had grown its light everywhere, and the emerald rose once more and welcomed the day… to find himself wrong.

But at least, he was able to see the sun's beginning light in the eastern horizon. So he decided to sit down and wait without wasting more time on trying to rest, since it was obvious he wasn't supposed to sleep this night. There was a great turmoil inside him, and he didn't understand it. It was like he had an enormous boil inside him that was about to burst... Or, more like a barrel. A barrel that someone had pumped water into in many years, not caring that the pressure one day would make the barrel explode. He could feel the pressure... the pressure of that barrel, as if it was his body. It had begun pressuring inside him for a long time, but it was only when he had gotten that headache after the bear that he realized it was there. And... Hilary had been after him yesterday... again. It made it worse...

"Tala...?" His voice was weak, wavering and shivering. His voice had never been like that, and the confusion got even worse. Something was about to happen... And it happened... inside him...

Even though the voice had been weak, the unfamiliarity in it woke the redhead up, and he opened his tired, blue eyes with a confused look. "What?" the slender boy said, before a look on his friend erased all sleep from his mind. The emerald didn't understand the look, but the emerald wasn't able to see himself either. He wasn't able to see the confusion and fear that seemed to be tearing the emotionless apart, nor could he see that his whole body was shaking insanely. And as unconnected to himself as he was, the emotionless couldn't feel it, either.

The gray-haired teen shifted weight on his sleeping-place, gripping the blanket tightly in his hands. "Tal... Tala... What's happening...?" He sounded like a little kid, waking after a bad dream to seeking comfort by its mom. The redhead took a deep breath and lifted his hand to lay a hand on one of the shaking shoulders in a weak attempt of making the other relax.

"Bryan..." Though not knowing what the fuck was happening, he knew it wasn't good, and there was only one was to stop it. "Calm down." The emerald tilted his head, not understanding what he meant. Calm down was something others did. Bryan was always calm, and he didn't know _how_ to calm down. The good thing was that Tala knew this. "Breathe in..." He did so himself, and Bryan followed his movement. "Breathe out..." They did so a few times, in... and out... The emerald's expression slowly got back to normal. Except for his hand, still clenching the blanket.

"That's good," Tala said, giving his teammate's shoulder a little squeeze before getting ready to go back to sleep. But that squeeze had been exactly what the emerald had been missing, and the image of Boris jumped up in his mind, the image of Boris touching him. That was too much for him... And the barrel inside him collapsed.

Instead of just ten or twenty liters, a whole ocean of feelings sprung out of it, and the pressure wasn't easing. Now, it just was on the emerald directly, and unused to feeling anything at all, he got into a state of extreme chaos and confusion when the ocean turned into a raging hurricane of these intense impressions that came on him from everywhere. And Tala was within his reach. Bryan took his hand, but before the redhead could get time to react, the emerald's big hand connected to the redhead's fine jaw. Another hit, and one more, before letting go, Bryan rose from his seat and threw the shelter away when it forced him to duck down. Then, he kicked the redhead, who did what he could to get away from the monster that was leaning over him in the body of his friend.

Tala got a grip on his teammate's foot and twisted it, which caused the emerald to fall. Seeing his only chance of getting away alive, the wolf jumped forward on all four, his one leg and wrist and a few rips already broken. But right when he was nearly out of reach, he felt the bear-like grip on his broken leg and himself getting pulled back again. It didn't occur to him for a second that he could call for help, being trained to rely on himself and _only _himself.

The redhead sat up and used the healthy hand to hit the gray-haired between the eyes, which received him a growl and a snort. This time, it was the redhead who got his foot twisted around, and since it was the one that was already broken the emerald had gripped, Tala screamed in pure agony. Kicking out in a last attempt of getting the far stronger teen of him, he felt the other one climb him, pushing the rest of his body down and making sure the prey couldn't get away. First making sure Tala's good hand was pressed under his body, Bryan then took the one with the broken wrist and twisted it around to make sure the redhead wasn't able to do anything. Then, he used his free hand to press the wolf's face into the soft moss. The redhead was unable to breath and struggled as hard as he could against the bigger, stronger one on top of him. But there wasn't murder in the green eyes. It was only agonizing confusion and pain.

"What the..." People had woken up as a cause of Tala's scream and Bryan's bull-like growls, but the first to react was the material artist, Garland. He stared at the scene for a second, too surprised to move. Then, he saw the redhead's struggle was beginning to fade, and he threw himself forward, realizing death was coming soon.

Tackling the emerald, he got Tala free, and the redhead pushed himself upward, coughing and gasping painfully. But not even Garland was stronger that Bryan, and it only took one good hit to the bluenette's head to send him to the ground, him being the new target for the blind rage. So much hate... so much pain... so much confusion... so much loneliness... so much of everything... _**TOO MUCH OF EVERYTHING!**_

Bryan kicked the material artist in the gut, but the bluenette got a grip on his foot and did the same trick as Tala had. And it was bound to end in the same scenario, and though the redhead tried his hardest to help, tried his hardest to get over, his condition was too bad for him to move out of the way. He could only watch as his teammate successfully choked Garland, and watch a weird kind of innocence in the green eyes of his murdering teammate.

This time, it was a blond who tried to stop the killing. Mystel wasn't even able to kick Bryan out of balance, but he got the attention needed from the emerald. Letting go of the bluenette, the gray-haired jumped after the fast one. Mystel was dead the moment Bryan as much as touched him, but athletic as he was, the blond kept out of the gray-haired's way for nearly five minutes. Jumping, running and turning fast, the blond had the upper hand. But then... he slipped. And Bryan was just about to jump him when Garland threw him to the ground once more.

Finally, the adult neko-jin found the scene of madness, Garland and Bryan rolling around to get the upper hand. They got a grip on Bryan, who continued fighting them with the same lack of mind as he had with his peers. It took five men to get him down on the ground, and the same number to keep him down, as he kept fighting to get up. Then, the hurricane finally settled a little, and Bryan laid on his stomach, his body too tense for the neko-jins to let him go.

"Make sure not to hurt him. Especially the shoulder..." Tala said, his eyes full of a deep concern no-one had ever seen before. Though the once that had 'known' him before had realized the redhead was a master of sudden mood-swings and not as dark as they had thought, the look in his eyes were... love, and it was not in the romantic way. And love was something he still had hidden for them as a feeling he had. He tried to get on his feet, but cringed and let it be, giving up getting over to his teammate. And the emerald was obviously still in pain and confused, green eyes shooting from person to person as if he had never seen them before.

"We'll try." It sounded sarcastic, and Tala's ice-blue glare stared into the eyes of the neko who had spoken, making sure to get his point through. Be as gentle as possible. Or the injured wolf-mother would make sure to tear out your throat. About everyone was awake now, and about everyone had gotten out of their shelters. When most of them realized the situation, they decided to leave them be, unable to help and not interested in getting involved.

While this, Bryan's eyes suddenly shut, and he tried to get out of their grip again. He didn't breathe at the moment, his breath caught in throat, unable to escape the terror he was on his way into. _"__He will get punished, but not by a whip." _That voice... That scene... That... That... Torture...

"Boris..." His voice let out the breath with that word, and then, it took up it's pace, his eyes still shut tight as he tried to get free from their grip. But the nekos didn't let him, afraid he might go on a rage again. _"So, then it's just you and me. And I know you still are... too influenced by my teachings to fight back, no matter what I do with you."_ His breathing began to speed up, in and out, and soon, he mostly reminded of a sweating dog. He had stopped struggling, but his body was tense. So tense it caused him to shake, his hands were balled into fist, nails digging into the flesh.

The nekos were afraid to let him go, though they were quite sure it was good. But the kid was too strong to let loose, so they couldn't just let go now that they had caught him. The redhead was still unable to get closer, and he didn't know what happened or what to do either.

_The hands was everywhere, feeling his body over. _Why... Why couldn't he move...? Why _hadn't_ he moved? Bryan hated himself. How disgusting. A... A... A whore. At least, he hadn't told anyone about this... _Bryan watched the man as his pants got pulled down._ "No..." It was merely a whisper. How... how embarrassing... to be used like that... And the worst part... he just let it happen... He was weak... So damned weak... "No..." He still didn't have his eyes open, not being a part of the present world. Then, he arched his body backwards with a force that monumentally pushed the five men backwards too, as he re-experienced Boris... 'entering'... Only to lean forward again, and lie on the floor.

"Oh God..." His breathing was back to normal, his body dried for energy... "Oh God..." He was sweating, his whole body heated up in the cold morning-air as he felt Boris move inside him again... "Please..." The men let go, but the emerald didn't move... "Please, stop it..." Last time this happened, he hadn't said a word... "Oh God..." But last time, he hadn't had his feelings, and he didn't feel the embarrassment, disgust, the hurt, nothing... "Please, make it stop..." He felt so weak, so low, so disgusting... "No..." ... so worth hating. "...God..." He was the lowest that had ever been on this planet... "I beg of you, please make it stop..." The tears began running down his cheeks... "Oh God..." His fingers dug down in the earth, revealing blood from when he had pierced his nails into his palms... "Oh, God, make it stop..."

Tala tried to move, but was once again unable to because of the broken leg and wrist. He wanted to comfort his friend, make him feel better. He was crying, and Tala assumed it was the pain of still being in the chaos of feelings he was caught in. The redhead had caught up with part of the situation. Though unable to ever set himself in the other one's place, he knew it was painful... He had seen it already. When the other one had let his pain get him into the state of blind rage, the innocence, the confusion, that had been in the green eyes, stronger than ever before when he had tried to kill everyone around him.

The emerald's body began to move, and the men was ready to jump him again if he should try to attack again. He didn't. He simply curled himself up, trying to protect himself, and his feelings was still raging under the memory, making his hands grip his nearly-long, gray hair and try to pull it out of his head. "I... I beg of you... Please..." A hand came into Tala's narrow view, the redhead being too concentrated on his teammate to see the other person coming. Looking up, he met the sight of pink hair, as the neko-jin-girl he actually didn't like stroke the Bryan's wet cheek.

"Shh... It's going to be okay." Everything about Mariah told that she had no idea what was going on. But it also said that she didn't care, and with a motherly instinct she normally only showed to her dearest friends, she tried to ease the pain of his teammate. The men wanted to shove her off.

"Mariah, get away, he might-!" one of them yelling, and both Tala and the girl saw how Bryan flinched when the man yelled, as if the loud and demanding voice brought him physical pain. Two death glares were shot at the man, one blue as ice, another golden as amber. And then, their voices sounded in synch, equally low and angry.

"Don't shout!" they sneered, making sure they did it low enough not to make the emerald uncomfortable. The girl didn't even grant the wolf a look, but went back to stroking the emerald's hair and getting his hands to let go before pulling out all of the gray mane. Showing such kindness... It was incredible. Absolutely incredible. A new, deep respect for her grew in Tala, as he saw how the agony disappeared from his teammate's face, and how his body relaxed again.

"Thank you..." the redhead whispered, finally able to relax himself and concentrate on his own wounds. At least, some of the neko-jins were good at medicine, and he let Garland help him up on his one good leg, the bluenette on his way there also, his nose bleeding and broken. Thanks to Garland, Mystel had gotten away with no wounds, as the bluenette had gotten the emerald away from him before he had been caught.

Green eyes emerged, looking up at the girl sitting over him. Though the chaos of feelings had stopped the moment she had gotten time to make him calm, the sight of someone being nice to him brought something of it up again. It was... a pleasureful feeling, and would have been good, if he didn't feel it so... intensely. Was it... happiness? Then, happiness hurt... Ugh... She removed her hand when she saw him awaken, but before Bryan was able to think, his hand had shot up and held her, not wanting her to leave. She had been... nice... to him... hadn't she? Ugh, new intense happiness. Was everything so intense? It hurt... Did all feelings hurt...?

She smiled at him when she saw a second of happiness in the normally emotionless, green eyes. But she had to leave, now where she had done her job and done something... that she didn't know why she had. But she was happy for having done it, that second of happiness in those eyes was enough reward for her. But when she shook her head and forced him to let go, the happiness got sad. And this feeling, he had nothing to lead him to understand what it was.

Happiness was like mental pleasure... though... ENORMOUS mental pleasure... sadness... it was nothing he knew of. The intense feeling filled him like the black flames of hate normally did, and he couldn't bear it. So... big. So strong, so powerful, so... not good. He saw one of the neko-jins that had held him to the ground having a sword around his waist, and before he was able to react, Bryan took it and aimed it towards himself... his stomach.

"No, Bryan!" Mariah had seen his reaction, and only with the help from he cat-like reflexes, she had gotten a grip on the sword and had place herself between it and Bryan's body, forcing him to a halt in that way, as he didn't want to hurt her. Tala turned around at the scream of the girl, and his eyes dilated at the realization of what his teammate was doing. He should have seen it coming. A person who normally reacted by killing his problems, how would he react on overwhelming feelings? It was so obvious! Overwhelming feelings = problems!

"Get me back to him!" Tala yelled at the bluenette, he himself running as good as he was able to on one leg. Damn, why couldn't that fool just be like everyone else, why should he always get into stupid situations? He watched as the emerald took the gun up from his belt and pointed it up under his head, on the chin.

Thank god for the bad-tempered, stubborn Mariah. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, she turned and gripped his arm, so that the bullet just barely scratched the side of his face. He pushed her away, and when the other nekos tried to react on this behavior, he simply pointed the gun at them to stop them. Even Garland stopped not willing to get closer, but Tala didn't even hesitate though the gun got pointed directly at him for a second. He jumped on without any support, the devil in his eyes. Bryan saw him, just about to pull the trigger and let the bullet go up through his chin.

The gun hit the ground as Bryan reached out and caught his captain before the redhead fell to the ground. "Tala..." The green eyes blinked surprised. "What happened to you?"

"Doesn't matter," the redhead said. He looked into the green eyes, still able to see the confusion, fear and pain just behind the calmness, and he decided it was best to lie to give his teammate one less thing to get suicidal about. Hurting his captain... "Look me into the eyes, Bryan," the wolf then said as the green eyes sought for the gun. "I'm not gonna let you end your life just when you get a chance to actually have one. Calm down. Think your life through, learn your feelings, learn to contain them. Give it all a chance before you end it." When the emerald actually was about to argue, something the redhead hadn't experienced before, the wolf put a finger on his lips, narrowing the blue eyes. His voice had been serious and ordering around as the leader he was. "That's an order, Bryan. And I will _not _let you disobey me." Bryan nodded slowly... And then, a sadistic gleam got into his eyes, and both hate and disgust grew. He pushed the redhead's hand away with a little too much force, again unable to control his feelings and body.

"I'm gonna _kill_ Boris."

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**(1)** I'll just say... Hypocrite, you don't want to talk about your own touchy subject, stop snooping around!

**(2)** Or The Kukus, whatever you want to call them

**(3)** Take google and search zombie animals, that would explain everything ^^ (GOD DAMN IT, WHAT FITS A FRANKENSTEIN-MONSTER?)

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Hope I haven't made Brookie too knowingly, but he can see the future, we know that... just never felt like that was the only thing he is able to, considering his way with animals and looking like nothing (except losing) can faze him or confuse him. So, everything I have been wondering about him have gotten poured out right here for you to see ^^ Also, hope you like and understand everything he explained, cause a better explanation won't come.

Actually, wanna know something? Brookie confuses me... I don't know if he is my fourth or my actual fave. Either one or another, and I DON'T KNOW WHICH. It shouldn't be that hard, especially not since the 'places', first and forth, is so far from one another, but I don't know exactly how much I like him...

I think Brooklyn got speaking-disorder (xD)... Though I know why he talked, he used ALL Kai's space to talk... and talk... and talk... and talk... and he nearly never talks!

But... Am I supposed to say anything about Bry? I will say this... I blame two people ^^ Boris and Hilary.

ENJOY IN JOY! IT'S AN ORDER!

PS. I am sending the first chapter of the story I have decided to do after Bound to Change soon, this week, the latest being next Sunday. Just if you are interested.


	16. Whips, emotions and street urchins

Just realized how much the story has changed, and that I have made 15 (now 16) chapters of it o.O I have done it incredibly fast, the story has fast and constant changes, and I... am so surprised. 15/16 CHAPTERS? How did that even happen? And over 150.000 words! I'm so confused... Think it's the longest thingy I have ever written...

Disclaimer: I...! don't own. Want to, but do not... I would appreciate it if you didn't ask...

Warning: … I don't see the point in telling this AGAIN …

Reviews:

phoenix-falling: Woah... … … Woah! o.O … … … Woah! You just sent a 16-year-old right through the stratosphere, I think I left my body while reading your review... I'm so impressed, so happy, I don't have words describing it... I just... Woah o.O I don't know how to comment on it, I really don't know what to say, and that's a rare thing! I... I... I guess I'll tell you thanks and... Say thanks, and... Tell you that, sadly, if I ever come around to write the sequel I have in mind, it will be with Rei as one of the mains since he is a fave... And... Say that I think you may give me too much praise, I am not really... that good, I think... or able to comprehend it all... Woah... But, yeah, for the was/were, I know I do it, I know the rules of doing it right, and I know everything I'm supposed to know to not make the mistake... That's what pisses me off, cause I'm a perfectionist, and that I know how to do it right and still do it wrong is seriously annoying for me. I'm in a bad situation, cause Danish (I'm from Denmark) is one of the few languages I know where am/are/is is 'simplified' to one single word (which is called 'er') and was/were is that, too (word called 'var'). Yeah, you may note the words have quite a little in common as the languages are in family, but because of this 'simplifiction' (and that so is NOT a word), I have an extra hard time getting used to do it right, and it is even also in every other verb. 'We are' is in Danish 'vi er', 'he is' is in Danish 'han er', 'I am' = 'jeg er', 'I was' = 'jeg var', 'we were' = 'vi var'. I think you get the picture... And even worse than that, I don't note my mistakes when I look the chapters over even though I'm able to it in other fics, because I only give myself a week to write a chapter and don't have time to forget it (as I do with my own, none-fic stories) so that I can see my mistakes. I don't know why I used so much time explaining that... well... once again, thank you so much for your review! I... I think I'll go read it again... I'm so... I lost words again, sorry... Thank you so much! I... Thank you so, so, SO much!

My Own Demise: God, I love writing that name... Anyway, I'm actually not a fan of the neko-girl either, but she has some personality-traits that I like despite this. She cares a lot, and I think she is able to broaden out this 'care', she would be a person I may even like! (Though I doubt it) And I agree with you on Tala, damn that loveable him... It's fun Brooklyn scares you, I like that, though it makes no sense at all when you sits and laughs at Bryan going nuts and try to kill everyone and everything. But seeing the future should make you able to... some things. Anyway, don't worry about the shortness, I got more than I thought when you first mentioned 'short' xD

GatewaysDiary: Ehm... Right, five in the morning... I can't be up that late without throwing up the next day, but I'll admit that I'm wanting to, cause that late/early in the day is the most GREAT time to be awake. Anyway, back to your review (is it just me, or do we always start out with something kind of not-important? Oh, well...). Bryan is heading towards hard times at the moment ^^ But though I can't say I like Mariah, I agree with you on the motherly part, and I just couldn't imagine any other reaction from her than trying to help him (though I think he scares the crap out of her...). But yes, when the bitbeasts 'appears', they either feed of their human or shares their power (both examples are present, since Brookie and Zeus shares while the Kukus kinda get eaten by their bits). But remember, they are CONSIDERED evil (yep, Brooklyn won't admit he has a bitbeast which influences him into doing bad things...)... Kuku-evil? HAHA, that's fun! Kuku-evil xD I love that, it fits so totally much in my personal dictionary! But yeah, he may, may not, something, kinda, yup. He might still be kuku-evil (xD!) if/when he wakes xD

This chapter is dedicated to my sister's now dead cat, Mozart III, whom got killed by the vet this Monday with me by her side after two weeks intense pain. You know I loved you, no matter how low IQ you had and what stupid things you did. You was and always will be the stupidest cat I have ever met, but with that stupidity you found a way to our hearts. Three-four years is too short a life for a cat, and I wonder if all the times you fell down from the couch, miscalculated a jump or ran headfirst into the door was what used up all you other eight lives. One of your cousins will get your name, as your uncle gave you yours.

* * *

Whips, emotions and street urchins

* * *

_As the new scene grew, Kai stood wondering if he should, and was able to, go back and ask Brooklyn what he was about to say, or if he should assume it was just another one of the weird thoughts the citrine seemed to voice constantly. After a little thought while he stared at a cell with his smaller being in it, the slate decided not to care. Many things the orange-haired had said didn't seem important at all, even if he had claimed them important, so why should this be different?_

_Besides, he was doing what _she _wanted him to. Finding out himself, so he wouldn't hate what he was._

_So, erasing the last part of the conversation from his mind, he clung to the important things like how to die, how to live and what to do. Making sure it was on his mind, he concentrated o_n the scene. A small boy with duo-colored hair sat in the corner of the cell, his bigger, blond cell-mate sitting in the other corner. The didn't talk, and the slate youngster had a look of rebellion and defiance on his face. Else, it was cold and didn't show any emotions. The blond looked scared. He was far from as strong and persistent as his cell-mate, and though he had been there for four years now, Boris was unable to erase his fear.

The only reason he was still alive and sane, despite the weaknesses called fear and kindness that still reigned in his heart, was that he was an exceptional blader. But he knew one thing, and that was that it was his seventh year birthday tomorrow. And he had just come to like his silent, stubborn mate. Now, he was getting moved to the dormitory, and he already knew it was hard to fit in there and hard to get friends there. He preferred to live with his silent mate here.

Only after half a minute of watching the two unmoving figures, the sound of two pairs of footsteps came into the dark hall. Spencer reacted and turned his head, and when he saw whom it was that was coming towards them, his eyes darkened in anger and hate. Not towards Boris, whom he only feared and didn't hate, but towards the boy walking at Boris' side. A redhead, a year older than Kai and a year younger than Spencer, was walking with Boris' hand on his shoulder and his whip in the belt. That this redhead once would be the blond's captain, only Boris knew.

"Spencer, you come with me. Kai..." The slate refused to react, and Boris tapped the bars with the ring on his finger to wake him up. But the boy wasn't asleep, just ignoring the man. "Alright, if that's how we play the game. Kai, whenever you are ready, you walk with Tala here. He'll give you a late welcome. I'm sorry it had to take two months, but Voltaire needed a little convincing." The blond's eyes widened, knowing what it meant. The young redhead had a job, and it was only the fewest who left him after the 'welcoming' without insanity in their minds.

The purple-haired man took the key in the door and opened it, walking in to get the bigger boy. He didn't argue, just opened his mouth. "Kai, try to get away, _don't _let Tala get you, too!" The smallest of the boys opened his eyes and stared at them as Spencer followed Boris to his new home. Then, the violets turned to the redhead, meeting blue eyes that was colder than ice. He was quite sure he should fear the boy in front of him. He had met many boys with cold eyes in this place, but these were... over the top. The purple-haired man took his hand on the redhead's shoulder and gave it a squeeze before moving on, the red eyes filled with triumph.

When Boris and Spencer were far enough away, the redhead moved closer. "Up." Order, short and sharp, icy tone and not to be questioned. And yet, the slate did anyway, sending his soon-to-be-famous glare into the ice-eyes above him.

"Why?"

Slowly, taking his time, the redhead took the long whip from his belt, unfolded it and placed it in his left hand. Then, he turned his attention to the smaller boy in front of him, showing a good amount of patience despite his threatening movement and cold eyes. "Up. _Now_. You are wasting my time." The whip was hanging from his hand, the braided leather cords moving as the redheaded boy lifted it slightly. There were three leather cords in all, two of them about one and a half meters long. The last one, one the kid was holding in the hand with the handle of the whip, was at least three meters, but was not to be used yet. It seemed impossible to handle without a good amount of training. _And Kai noticed that, even for an Abbey-kid, his redheaded friend's face moved extremely little. Only the eyes seemed to shift and change._

But Kai is known to be stubborn. "You didn't answer my question." Even as only a four-year-old, the slate was sharp, both mind and tongue. "Why? I'm not going to follow you, especially not when you have that one." He nodded towards the whip. "So, what if I refuse? What will you do- UGH!" The small boy yelped in pain and curled up.

The two shorter cords of the whip had flown through the air and marked the smaller boy's right leg, just over the foot. The redhead took a step forward and got a grip of the boy, and forcing the smaller up on his feet, the five-year-old held the whip up under the kids nose. Kai had tears in his eyes, but his eyes still held that stubborn look. Though fear had sneaked into the violets, too. "You are going to listen to me from now on, understood?" the red-haired boy spat, and when he didn't get any reaction from the other boy, he threw him back on the ground with brutality. "Follow."

It was obvious boy-Kai didn't want to. But he was only four, it was a months since he saw his mother, and he was sure his sister was in grave danger. No matter how hard and how rebellious he acted, he was still only a child, and he was even more scared than the soon-seven-year-old he had shared cells with. And it was his first time feeling a whip. He didn't... he didn't know what to do. And he didn't know how to get away from there.

The redhead walked two steps in front of him, past the many cells that lined the hall with kids from the age three to six years. When you reached the seventh year, you were old enough to be moved to the dormitory. But the small Kai stared at all the people in the cells, noticing half of them stare at the redhead with a mix of fear and hate, exactly like Spencer had. The other half had empty, mindless eyes, though when the redhead came into view, fear appeared in the insane eyes. It seemed Tala had quite the reputation, only as five years old and, may be tall, but not very big for his age. And after walking for about two minutes, one of them got Kai's attention long enough to mouth 'run'.

The small boy didn't need to hear that twice. He turned around and began running, not caring where he would run to, just getting away from the boy in front of him was enough. Tala realized what he was doing and turned around, letting the last of the leather cords go free from his hand. A swing to the side, and the short cords roamed over the other one's back while the long flung itself around his thigh. Surprise, pain and Tala forced the young slate to the ground.

The now pissed redhead jumped forward again and gripped the slate hair. Then, he forced the kid's head backwards and stared into his eyes. "One more try and you'll regret it, punk," he snarled, then pulled the smaller one upwards, and Kai was fast to get to his feet in attempt of spare himself some pain. Tala then loosened the whip from his thigh with the hand holding the whip, only to drag the smaller one behind him with unnecessary brutality.

Finally reaching the room they had been heading towards, the redhead froze, blue eyes dilating. Confused by his reaction, Kai turned his head to see what had made fear fill the cold eyes of the ruthless, little boy, and he found the sight intriguing and confusing. It was just a boy, maybe slightly bigger than both of them, but still only a boy. He was sitting on a table, his gray hair going past his shoulders and the clothes and dirty skin showing it was even longer since he had had a bath than any of the rest of the children. Why was this boy scaring his cold and evil tormentor?

Though he was sitting up in a chair, his arms and legs were bound to the chair as five men in white scientist-coats crept around him, injecting needles in him and doing tests. It was then obvious why they had bound him, when his body cramped up as a reaction. If it was_n't because Kai knew who it was, he would have been surprised not to see much fear in the green eyes. Though it was there, it was a minimum, and that minimum was more than the slate would have expected. A man was constantly mumbling things in the boys ears. Kai knew what he said when the small amount of fear disappeared as if it had never been there._

_'Fear is an illusion.'_

_But the slate on_ly saw curiosity in the four-year-old's face. But after coming over the shock of seeing the boy, Tala straightened up and snorted, successfully getting the scientists attention. "Boris has provided me the room," he said with false self-confidence, though some of his fright was still visible. Apparently, he didn't like the boy in the chair.

"Tell him we will be half and hour late," one of the scientists informed, and the redhead let go of the slate hair and glared at the full-grown men with arms crossed over his chest.

"I need it _now_."

"You will have to wait." The man gave Tala a stern look, and the boy looked away after a few moments. The scientists were still some kind of authority, so he couldn't decide over them. "You wait outside and can come in when we are done, understood? And go tell Boris we will be half an hour late, since his body reacts positively and we can jump directly to next step." The scientist was about to turn, but saw Tala rolled his eyes. "What?" he snapped.

"Does it _look _like I'm able to go to Boris?" the redhead said, gesturing towards Kai by his side. "You are not the only ones who have a job to do, so shoo off and tell him yourself. He is in the dormitory, one of the others have his very special birthday." If you play with fire, you will get burned. But Tala was used to the burn, and he didn't even flinch when the scientist took a step over to him and slapped him across the face. Then the adult turned to his colleagues.

"Someone go off and contact Boris," he said, and when everybody else seemed to be concentrating on their task, the least important walked through the door, making sure to push so hard to Tala that the kid nearly fell over. The least important appeared to be the one mumbling to Bryan to keep him from fearing, a_nd Kai got surprised when the gray-haired boy just continued to stare at them without showing fear, despite his body cramping and tensing, and despite his life-line disappearing. _"And you." The scientist went back to talk to the small, red-haired boy. "You wait in the hall. Get out of my sight, _now_."

Grumbling and growling, the boy took a step backwards and went back in the hall, giving Kai a sign to follow. The sign got followed by a tab on the whip, which was back in the redhead's belt, warning what would happen in an attempt of fleeing. They stood there, and the small Kai was curious about the boy in the chair. He was sure if he was the one getting injected things and cramping up, he would be screaming or crying. And Tala feared him. "Who was..."

"It's Bryan. Their little puppy-freak. I'm not excited to meet the dog he'll grow up as." The redhead stared into the wall opposite to them, and the before cold eyes seemed sad. The slate opened his mouth again, but the older boy was one step ahead of him. "Kuznetsov is in a special program of making human inhuman. One of a kind." There still was something else in the blue eyes than just the ice. "It's bound to end bad, either for Boris or for the ones he is going to work with, if he'll ever be set to work with anyone. As said, I'm not excited for him to grow up."

"And that is the reason you fear him?" Back in the game, trying to get the upper hand. Kai already had his games.

"I _don't _fear him. I don't fear anything. Keep quiet, _now!_" the boy snarled, but Kai didn't back away. He was getting something good. He just had to dig in a little deeper, then he had what he wanted.

"Is that we you react like that?"

"Shut up!"

"You fear him, or you would tell me to shut up."

"_Shut up_!"

"Why is it you fear him?"

"_Shut UP!_"

The redhead was once gripping his whip, and the smaller one flinched. He didn't want to feel the whip again. Though he was not yet bleeding, it still hurt a damn lot. Enough to make him want to cry, though he refused to do so. With the blue eyes constantly watching the smaller of the two, they kept silent for the rest of the time, until the group of people with Bryan finally got done. When they came out, a unconscious, gray-haired boy was lifted by two men down the hall, but Kai didn't have time to look after them when the redhead got a grip on his hair again and dragged him inside.

Letting go of him, Tala turned and locked the door. Then, he found the board he normally used to whip people on and made it ready while Kai was looking with scared eyes. Not fun. Chains, hard metal, cold and black, and he was _not _going to go over there! But unfortunately, he wasn't the one to decide anything. Tala was.

As soon as he was ready, the older of the boys turned to him and tilted his head. "It's gonna hurt more if you fight back," he informed, looking seriously with the cold back to those young eyes. It didn't fit a child. It only made it more terrifying that it was a boy, a creature who would normally be able to be considered a friend, that held the whip. That might just be Boris' plan with letting the redhead do the 'greeting', making the kids that already was uneasy even more.

"Why are you doing this?" the smallest boy asked, but it seemed to be enough resistance for the redhead to react to. He jumped forward, got a grip in the smaller ones arm and flung him over towards the board, making the small Kai fall in over the board. Then he used all his strength to push the smaller the rest of the way up before the duo-haired got time to think, the five-year-old body trembling and shaking from the strain. When Kai finally was ready to fight back, it was too late, and his hands and feet was chained.

_Seeing what was about to happen, Kai's violet eyes widened. The redhead was his friend, and the small, slate-haired boy was his younger self, and he could only stare when Tala found another whip from the wall and approached the helpless boy. He could only stare when the redheaded boy tore the other ones shirt apart, getting ready for the treatment that wasn't even a punishment. It was simply Boris' way of tearing the boys away from who they was._

_When the first slash sounded, the slate looked away, hearing himself cry in pain one second, only to sob wildly the next. Was he supposed to watch? He didn't want to. It hurt, even if he couldn't remember what had happened. It hurt pretty badly, even if it only was a younger him that got this treatment. So he decided to get away as fast as possible._

_One hour forward, he demanded, and the scene inside the room fell apart and got replaced by a scene with nothing else than the empty room in it. Over to my body, he then demanded, and the scene became blurred before he suddenly found himself outside the cell where it all began. Inside t_he cell was Tala and a bandaged and still sobbing Kai, the redhead nearly gently helping the other one to lie down. But before he could go away, the slate boy talked to him.

"Have you ever felt the whip yourself?" The younger fought back his sobbing, trying to look strong.

The redhead froze on the spot, then turned to the smaller boy again. "No. Why would you ask?" There was a short pause. "It doesn't matter anyway. Stop talking to me." Once again, he tried to move, but heard the other one mumble something. "_What_ did you say?" he growled, and everything about him told that he was ready to beat up the slate.

"I said: Only a weakling gives the pain to others that he doesn't know himself. You are nothing but a bully. That is why people hate you. You are nothing but a bully, and you will never have friends, and you are weak. You go for the ones weaker than yourself and have a weapon that makes you better than those stronger than yourself. But it's all false. You are just a weak bully, and no one will ever love you."

Tears formed in the blue eyes, and the small hands tightened into fist. But he refused to close his eyes. He refused to let the tears fall, confirming the words the younger boy had said. "Shut up," he whispered, his voice shaking. "Shut _up_! I don't care about friends!" It was a howl, yelling uncontrollably, shaking on the verge of sobbing. "I don't care about love! You don't know me! You CAN'T judge me! Shut up!" It was degrading that a person you had just whipped and that was lying on the ground, too weak to even stand up, still could get the upper hand. But Tala didn't care for this at the moment. "I DON'T CARE ABOUT LOVE! I _KNOW _NOBODY LOVES ME! Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. I'm NOT WEAK! I'M NOT! I'M _NOT_!" As if the smaller boy was still talking, the redhead covered his ears with his hands. "Shut up... Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up..."

After a short while, Boris appeared, hearing his little soon-to-be masterpiece losing it. He reacted by gripping the back of the redhead's neck and forcing it backwards, the teary, blue, and yet still cold eyes staring into his own. "I won't help you kill him if you don't get a grip." The blue eyes widened, as if those words were the worst possible to hear. Then, dragging himself away from Boris, he wiped his eyes. When the blue orbs were visible again, they were back to their normal look, cold, hard and unfeeling, not even a mask to cover up the true feeling others with a look like that tried to hide. The redhead stared at the small boy in front of him again. The last thing he did, giving Boris a wicked smile on the face, was spitting the slate in the face. Then, he turned and disappeared down the hall.

This left Boris to smirk with the small boy, left, and after wiping away the spit from his face, bo_th Kais stared after the redhead. That little boy... Kai couldn't understand that that little boy... That those cold eyes, that hateful voice and those ruthless and harsh actions... belonged to his cheery, redheaded friend..._

* * *

The redhead let his healthy hand go through his unusually messy, fiery hair, the blue eyes surfing over the people in the camp. It was time to go in to the capital of France and a week since Bryan went on his rampage, and the redhead still had his injuries and still held their source hidden from his mentally unstable friend. But right now, where he searched for the gray-haired teen, he was unable to find him and unable to understand why. Where could Bryan go?

It took a ten minutes limping around on his one crutch before he heard the voice he was listening for in between the trees behind the shelters. Limping closer, he saw them, and he was nearly into view before he realized the situation. It made him freeze, and then he narrowed his eyes, debating whether or not he should show himself and tell Bryan to let the poor, stupid girl go, or if he should just let them finish off...

In between the trees, the emerald stood, leaning again a tree-trunk with the biggest smirk on his face ever seen in Earth's history. In front of him, Hillary stood, tears in her eyes, nearly sobbing so loud that the redhead could hear her. She had had too high hopes for everything, and now she was paying... "But I just wanted to love you, and have you love me back? Is that such a crime? Isn't that what we all want?" Dream on, girl, he just isn't the right person...

"I don't want it," the emerald said, and his face was showing all the emotions coming through him. Amusement was the most common, the one the smirk was filled with, but flickers and shadows of other more grim emotions twisted his face every once in a while. Though able to contain the feelings without going berserk again, he hadn't found one single feeling he was comfortable with, one that didn't hurt his previously empty mind. Every feeling was 'intense' in his head, though he still hadn't felt the truly intense feeling yet. Love as an example.

"I'm not interested in having love." Cause he feared it just the slightest. "And you were stupid enough trying to give it to me? So, you sneaked into my tent and expected me, as I was at that moment, to love you? Go and talk to Tala again, since you didn't listen last time he told you. You – are – a – pain – in – my – ass." They had been at it for a while, since Hilary seemed to have had cried quite a bit, but somehow, the emerald hadn't gotten angry. Or else, she would be knocked out, as he was absolutely unable to handle anger in a good way, and would end up violent.

"But I haven't done anything? Is it wrong to show you-"

"Yes it is. It is very wrong. You see, I'm not the one you want to bother, cause you ARE bothering me when you follow me all day long. Go find someone who actually likes you and tell them you love them, cause that would be about as true as everything you have stuffed into my ears. Problem is, I don't care, so no matter what lies you waste on me, it doesn't work. And now, move, you worthless girl." The amusement in his face grew.

She, on the other hand, straightened up and tried to look superior to him. "Yeah, I'll go. I shouldn't waste my time on a heartless freak, and that obviously is what you are," she tried to comeback, but it didn't really work. Bryan had never learned how to be social, he had never learned how to approach people or talk to strangers. But he still had a mind that worked faster than any, and immediately when she called him a freak, a small chuckle sounded from his mouth.

"Well, I know I'm a freak. Do you? Obviously not. You know what they say, whoever 'they' are: Who's the actual idiot, the idiot, or the one who follows him? I will now ask you the same: Who is the actual freak, the freak himself, or the girl who is stupid enough to love him? You just declared yourself a freak. Welcome in my sick, little club." There was a malicious look in his eyes as he pushed away from the tree and walked closer to her, making sure his expression showed her that he was about to beat her up. She shrieked, finally giving in , turned and ran.

Luckily, she didn't go past Tala on her way to the camp, but he could hear her finally give in to the tears. Turning back to his teammate, the redhead saw a look of utter pleasure on the other one's face. If it hadn't been for the situation of the boy in front of him having just plagued a girl, even the first girl ever to feel something for him, he would have loved that expression on that particular face. Right now, he just felt wrong for it. That wasn't nice.

That was fun, the emerald thought, and then stopped mid-step on his way to the camp to. That was fun, he repeated in his head. Then, a thoughtful expression came upon him. That – Was – Fun. "That was fun," he finally said out loud and grinned widely. He was able to think. This was the first time in... as long as he remembered he was able to think of something pointless, instead of going through solutions in his head and then leave it empty. That was fun = pointless, no reason to be thought and no meaning at all. Spontaneous, unprovoked. He had thought of something pointless, something not mattering for anything, something spontaneous and ridiculous. That was big!

"No, it wasn't fun," Tala ruined the moment, and the wide grin on the emerald's face disappeared again. "It was stupid and cruel to tell a girl that she is unnecessary, and that she doesn't matter, even if it should be true. You can't say that to anyone, actually, it harms everyone to hear those words. But you think it's fun?" It reminded him of a conversation they had had just two-three days ago, in the time where the redhead hadn't left the other one's side to make sure he didn't castrate someone in an outburst of the still-uncontrollable feelings. It had been night, and they were about to go to sleep. But Bryan hadn't been tired, and soon, he had sat himself up so many times Tala asked what was wrong.

"_I feel... Desperate," _was the answer he got. _"I feel like I'm supposed to do something. My hands want... to move or pull or just touch something, anything. I feel so desperate about me, not doing anything... But I don't know what I'm supposed to do... or what I'm feeling. I nearly feel sick... is that wrong? I just... It's just... not..." _He had lost words, but after a while, Tala had understood, and he had answered as good at he could to calm his teammate down.

"_Well, you're just bored. It's not dangerous or anything, it'll pass."_

"_Then I don't like being bored... It's even worse than being happy or sad..."_

"_You know what? The cure against boredom is just doing something. Something fun... Want to play a game? I think of an animal, and then you try to guess what it is by asking yes or no-questions until we fall asleep? Want to?"_

"_Yeah, alright... Wolf?"_ They both had laughed, and it was their first time truly laughing together.

"_Yeah, you caught me..." _the redhead had said, grinning. _"Your turn." _

"... You were bored, weren't you?" the redhead asked, and he got a nod as the answer. He sighed. Why was it impossible for normal people to seek him out? Why was he stuck with friends like Bryan or Ian or Spencer or Kai, all of them finding their own way to get into trouble? It was a pain... But he appreciated every one of them, and knew he wasn't easy to be around, either. "Well, you can't have fun treating people badly. It's not nice and considered wrong-"

"I _know_ it's wrong, but that doesn't make it less fun. Fun doesn't hurt, unlike whatever else you put me through," the gray-haired teen said, crossing his arms. The redhead had rightly assumed the other teen hadn't ever learned the concepts of right and wrong, but he seemed to have taught himself a thing or two by watching. But there was a difference between knowing and doing, and that difference was Bryan. It was wrong – but he didn't care. It was the same with being around people. Before, he had tried to fit in with his false smile and expressions – now he had found out he didn't care at all what others thought of him. Why should he then care about right or wrong?

Tala was fearing who his friend was turning in to.

"Don't give me that expression," the emerald scuffed, snorting slightly. "Don't worry about me. As said, I'm actually having a chance to get a life now, right? I just have to... learn to get used to it all." He was trying to reassure the only person at the party he liked and cared for, but was unable to remove the sadness in the blue orbs. "You want me to try harder at be a part of _them_? Cause then I will. I promise. Just don't... Look like that. You make me... Uneasy..."

It was true, and very visible. He wasn't just uneasy, but close to afraid too. The wolf was fast to hide his feelings behind a mask, afraid of the reaction he would get if the other one really _was _uneasy. What Tala was able to imagine wasn't pretty, and with a wrist, a leg and some ribs already broken, it might be something far more important that was the next thing to be broken. "Sorry. You don't have to be social if you don't feel like it. Just... make sure you feel safe, okay?" The emerald's expression changed, too, from anxious and uneasy to slightly annoyed.

The new feeling of annoyed hurt, but he forced himself not to flinch in mental pain. "You are protecting me, aren't you? 'Make sure you feel safe, okay?'" He changed the voice to a bad, higher pitched and very much more aggressive imitation of Tala's own voice. "I don't need you to take care of me, I can do that _perfectly_ myself, so just fuck off and stop caring! I don't need your help!" He was getting more aggressive, and the same was Tala.

"You know what? You might think so, but it's not true! You need me, cause you don't know a shit about what the hell the world is about, watching aren't learning, so come down from your mighty, high horse and treat me with some respect!" the redhead yelled, staring at him with fierce eyes. "I'm still here, by your side, even though you nearly killed me when you went crazy with your feelings! So _you_ fuck off, without me, you had shot a bullet through your own head! Do you think it won't happen again? Do you think you've got everything under control? I can tell you, you haven't, and I know you still have the gun in your belt, and what for some might be a long fight from the thought to the action, for you it is just a pull and a push, and then I get to find your body, knowing all my effort is spilled! So stop your whining and appreciate that someone actually see you as a friend, even if you are too heartless, cruel and cold to deserve anyone who cares about you!" The two stared at each other for a moment...

Then, the green emerald eyes widened in realization as his mind went through all the things the redhead had said, fear evident in the usually emotionless orbs. "I... I tried to kill you...? I... I was the one to... to break your..." It seemed he wasn't in a good mood for finding out he had hurt an important person of his. And so, his eyes began to drift downwards the gun, once again deciding everything was easier without him in the world.

"Bryan... Yes, you did, and I'm not angry at you because of it. I'm sorry I said that... Just... don't get upset, please... You _can't_ leave me alone with a bunch of idiots!" … Good argumentation. The emerald finally lifted his gaze after letting the redhead suffer in fear of his next move for whole five minutes, trying to suppress the emotions pressing on his inside. The anger towards himself for hurting his friend, cause friends they were. The anger towards Tala, for not saying anything. The happiness, because Tala had declared them friends. The irritation, because life just didn't want to be easy. And the list continued, with the two most important hate towards everything and confusion because of all the feelings... Why couldn't everything just be easy and understandable? WHY WAS IT SO HARD TO LIVE?

It clicked in his head for another small moment of time, and the gray-haired teen turned around and sent first his left, then his right fist into the trunk of the tree he had just leaned towards. When he punched the last time, a loud crack was heard, and Tala blinked one time. Then a second. Then, he opened his mouth. "You didn't just break your hand, didn't you? Mori will get pretty pissed if you have... You are constantly getting hurt, or giving her more work by hurting others..." The redhead limped a little closer, just to make sure nothing has gone wrong...

But it has... Of course it has. It was the emerald's specialty to make things go wrong, so of course. "Yeah, think I broke it," Bryan mumbles, looking even angrier than before he went to punish the tree. But at least, the other emotions didn't try to drown him anymore, so he was about able to handle it. Anger and hate was very similar in Bryan's mind, and since he was nearly able to handle the hate he always had used to stop his enemies with, the anger was no real problem. It didn't seem as intense as the hate, though it still could be unbearable sometimes... "Do you think she'll kill me? If I was her and I came with a broken hand after this much trouble..."

"She won't kill you, you are stupid to think that," the redhead said, no amusement in his voice. "But the others are gathering the stuff, we are moving on. We are going to Paris, you know. If you are lucky, she hasn't packed yet, and she will only yell a bit because of your idiocy of _punching you hand into a tree_ that, for some _weird reason_, is harder than your fingers... Didn't you punch it the right way or what?" The wolf raised an eyebrow, and Bryan shrugged.

"I just thinks it's a knuckle... Something similar, nothing big. You sure she won't kill?" Having an argument about whether or not the neko-jin healer-mistress would tear his heart out and use it as witch-medicine because he had managed to hurt himself, _again_, they moved back to the camp and over to the nekos part. The argument proved Bryan had gotten at least a little imagination back from the state he was in for just a week ago. But it seemed the emerald would survive this time, since she hadn't packed just yet... "I think I broke my hand," he told the woman.

The neko-jin woman sighed annoyed, as it was true he had been in her care a lot in the time he had known her. "What happened this time? More bears?"

"I punched a tree," he answered, and the woman did her best not to smile and look grumpy as she began doing her job with the wolf standing to watch as if it was some kind of interesting movie. About half-way through the treatment, Xiu, the neko-jin girl Tala had put his eyes upon, appeared, asking if he was ready. He answered her he had to make sure his teammate was okay before they could leave.

"What are you forcing her to do?" the emerald asks.

"I always get what I want," the wolf grinned, then turned his face into innocence, though it wasn't really convincing. "I just asked her, _kindly_, if she wanted to help me move to Paris, since I'm unable to walk myself and I only have one crutch thanks to my broken wrist. She said yes, which means I will have a few hours of walking close together with her, and in that time, I can get to know her, you know..." he explained as they reached their own sleeping-place. The emerald lifted all the things he was able to and was standing with a bit of a problem with his newly broken, pretty sore hand, looking at the things left on the ground... How was he going to get it all?

He looked over at Tala, and the wolf grinned again, this time a little sheepishly. "Oh, well, there she is. See you at Paris, right? Bye!" Limping as fast as he was able to, Tala fled out of sight. Slightly perplexed, since he was unable to see Xiu in the crowd of people and didn't really understand why Tala had been so fast, Bryan looked back down on their baggage to come up with a solution for the problem he was facing. How should he get everything moved?

* * *

_Moving on, Kai decided, and as soon as he let go of the memory of seeing his friend like that, it disappeared in the mist of memories he only was half-way able to store, and left was not the memory, but the knowledge that he had been whipped as a child. And he could only guess it had happened more times than just that single one. But as soon as he thought this, as if it had been a thought, a new picture grew. It wasn't a bad one, as far as he could see._

_When the scene finally had grown to it's full size, he was watch_ing his small self sitting over a box with seven kittens and their mother. The only reason why the mother let him touch the kittens was because she was so used to him, and the wide smile on his face told that Kai loved to take care of her and her young ones. He was giving her his leftover from last nights meal, probably starving himself to give it to her. Kai seemed to be about the same age as he had been in the last scene. The weird thing with the scene was that he still seemed to be inside the walls of the abbey.

There was a sound of a door getting opened up, and the smaller Kai was fast to hide behind the cage of a bigger animal. It was some kind of storage-room, and line after line of animals, small and big, harmless and poisonous, were there. Yet the only animals he had his eyes on was the kittens in the small cage, and even when he had to hide, the violets didn't leave them. But he had to suppress a gasp when the guard took the cage of the kittens and left.

Trying to stop his sob before it came, the kid began to move after the man. It was obvious he wasn't supposed to be out of his cell by the way he moved as soundless as possible, and yet he was setting himself in a stupid situation by following the small animals in the man's arm. He was murmuring something, a_nd the bigger Kai moved himself closer to his smaller self to listen. And what he heard even hurt him now. _

"They won't take them. I'm not going to lose any more people. I promised to protect them. Like I promised Asachi, I will protect them. I _will_ do it this time. I won't lose more people, I can't take losing anymore. It's all dad's fault, and I will prove him wrong by protecting her and her kittens..." The murmuring continued, so low that it was impossible to hear for all people near, but it sounded so desperate it was bordering insanity. How long had that boy been alone?

The guard turned through a door, luckily the guard didn't turn around to make sure nobody followed him. Why should he do so, when there was no enemy in the Abbey who could attack him? Inside the door was the sound of shooting, and the small sobs got even worse in the slate-haired boy's throat as he still tried to suppress them. He knew what was in there, and he knew no animal got back from getting taken in that room. But he would find a way to stop them!

He reached the door just in time to see the one he considered a friend, his old cell-mate, Spencer, being placed in front of the kittens. Around them, the other kids were shooting against unmoving, dead targets. It was impossible to see Spencer's reaction to be set in front of something living, which fo_rced Kai to move closer. Still out of earshot, he saw the expression of awe and fear broaden on the bigger ones face. He didn't want to do that... he didn't want to kill the kittens. But that was something t_he younger Kai was unable to see from his hiding-place behind the door.

A few seconds later, another boy was set in front of the kittens, and many eyes were following him as this happened. It was Bryan, and it was the first time ever he was seen 'public'. Not that it seemed to bother him, as the five-year-old walked beside his five scientists, one of them constantly murmuring things to him. He was placed beside the blond, and then, with a few words to finish, the scientists moved themselves to the walls, watching every one of the gray-haired boy's moves. They weren't interested in the boy by his side, only in the youngest of them.

But the small Kai who hid behind the door stared only at the kittens and their mother as the gray-haired got ready to fire his first shot. The blond didn't seem comfortable with the situation, and when Bryan said a few words to him, it only got worse. The other kids were watching them, knowing that most of them would argue if they were set to shoot anything living. And get beaten pretty badly for refusing, too, but they would do it anyway.

For that reason, a gasp shot through the whole room when the kid shot without hesitation, to visible pleasure for the scientists standing at the wall. But at the door, a muffled cry was heard. The boy-Kai stood with a fist in his mouth not to reveal his hiding-place by crying, a_nd the older one demanded himself back to his younger self. It was jus_t then the boy removed the hand from inside his mouth. Instead of biting it, he cried into the fist, the sobs so violent his body was shaking. But he had no tears. Spencer's shots followed, and the already wide violet eyes grew even more, despair and betrayal marked in the face. He had considered Spencer a friend, but the blond had shot his cats!

"... No! ... No!" That single slipped out from between the hiccuping sobs, as the boy closed the eyes and let his body fall down on his knees to the floor. His hands reached up for his face and held it, the boy unable to bear any more pain. "... No! ...No-No-Not a-again!" Everything poured out from the kid as he sat there, shaking and clenching his head like an insane person, falling apart, changing, silently screaming out his pain, the mouth open to make the scream, but it was choked in his sobbing throat. No tears was in the violet eyes, though they were filled to the brink with despair. The voice and the eyes of the four-year-old were already unab_le to cry, like the sixteen-year-old copy in __his front._

_It was hard to watch... So hard that the older Kai bowed down over the younger and tried to touch him, comfort him... His hand hit the slate part of the duo-colored hair, but just as he was about to reach all the way through the boy's face, the slate teen stopped. Touching the surface of the kid's head, he let the hand reach down and touch the surface of the tear-less cheek. He didn't know if the boy was able to feel him... But he might. Cause th_e boy lifted his head and sought the air above him, still feeling something caress his face in attempt of comforting him...

"Mom...?"

Footsteps broke the moment, and the boy cringed and tried to get up. But before he was able to, Boris took him by the shirt and dragged him to his feet. "Let that be a lesson for you," he snarled, then used the other hand to lift his chin up and look into the boy's eyes. "If you bond to anyone or anything, you will get hurt. If you know yourself and only yourself, you know what to expect." Then, Boris backhanded the boy across the face. "I will be able to see if you don't go directly back to your cell and stay there. Tala will bring your new cell-mate, Alexander, so you won't be alone anymore, but if you bond to him, it will be your problem. Now, go away with you and don't ever sneak out again, or else!" Boris pushed him in the direction of his cell, before he himself turned towards the door.

_Kai stared after the younger version of himself. He didn't know how long he had stared before Boris came outside, yelling at the younger Spencer and threatening to kill him if he didn't toughen up. _

_So many things didn't add up in this past. Spencer had always been strong. Sure, he _was_ the kindest Blitzkrieg-Boy, but he was just as harsh as the rest when needed. Tala could be violent and cold when he wanted to, but when he didn't compete, he was smiling and in a good mood when he had time for it. Only Bryan fit, but that was no surprise, considering he hadn't moved mentally for the last many years, and the slate began to fear what he would see Ian as..._

The scene changed finally, and the image of a small boys, looking mostly as the size of a two-year-old, with purple hair and red eyes was dragged through the halls by Boris. He was only barely able to follow the long strides of the man, stumbling over his own feet. But of course, what made you able to recognize him was his big nose. His clothes were unbelievably ragged, and he had bruises and cuts everywhere on his face and body.

"Tala, come here, _now_," Boris demanded to a walkie, and he got a near inaudible answer back. After a few more minutes of dragging, the redhead appeared, obviously older than the last vision he appeared in, but he still had the whip and the cold eyes. He seemed to be winching slightly every time he moved, but the purple-haired man didn't seem satisfied anyway. "What took you so long?" he snapped, tapping his foot on the floor.

"I was getting my bandages changed," the redhead said, a slight smirk showing on his face. Though the eyes were still ice-cold. That was one thing that hadn't changed in the year it had taken since last vision. He was six years now.

"That's no excuse," the purple-haired snapped, and the redhead shrugged, his head tilted to the side, the smirk wider.

"Maybe because it was a fact, not an excuse," he said, not even bothering to sound innocent.

"You could just stop snapping back at people, then I wouldn't need to get you whipped."

"You would be disappointed if I stopped speaking my mind," the redhead said, looking Boris straight into the eyes. "I won't let any scientist talk down to me. Or you talking down to me, for the matter. I do what I want, and I take the consequences of my actions." Such mature words from such a young, cold kid. It seemed like it at been years since he had last smiled, and the result of this was a constant frown on the childish face. "Besides, your guards are terrible with the whip." The last was added with slight amusement as he caressed his favorite weapon, sitting in his belt.

"Whatever." Had it been anyone else to talk to him like that, Boris would have sent them straight to Tala's claws or even kill them. Had it been anyone else, there would have been consequences. But it was Tala. "Take the kid," Boris said and pushed the tiny figure over towards the redhead. The blue eyes looked the kid over, taking the kid by the chin and turning his head to the side, tracing a cut on his cheek with a slender finger. Then, the nose wrinkled and the red-haired boy let go of him, the slim body showing every sign of disgust.

"He stinks," the boy commented. "And he is hurt. There is no point in whipping him... Give him a bath instead."

"You don't want to whip him?" Boris asked, amusement in his voice. He received a snort from the six-year-old.

"I always enjoy putting people in their place. But the cut on his cheek itself brings more pain now than any of my slashes would, so we would both just end up wasting our time. Soften him up before you come and waste my time again." It was said with the seriousness of an adult. Then, a flicker of curiosity pushed itself through the cold, blue eyes, and the redhead got a little of his long lost childish look back. "Where did you find him?"

"He was a street urchin. I have been following him all the half a year he has been, and he has, surprisingly enough, survived. So I decided to take him in. A three-year-old who can survive on nothing is a child of my taste." The redhead raised an eyebrow at the last comment, then looking at the kid. He had to be two. Anything else seemed too old for the small body. "But if you really refuse, then take him to the infirmary to get taken care of. _Order_."

The redhead rolled his eyes again, them back to the cold ones. "As you wish," he said, and instead of grabbing the kid's hand, he gripped the wild, greasy hair, only to wrinkle his nose again as soon as Boris was out of sight. "You seriously stink." The older boy pulled the now fighting younger one after him. "When was the last time you got a bath? Must have been ages... Oh, no, you are not old enough to be an age. But you smell like a greasy mummy."

"Thut up!" the boy said, digging his nails into the hand holding his hair. But Tala didn't react by anything other that dragging harder, and the little boy screamed, not in pain or cry, but to get the other one away from him. He sounded more like an animal than a human, and the eyes were wild, stubborn and angry. "Thut up and thlet tho!"

"I'm neither going to shut up or let you go, so stop wasting your own time!" Tala growled, kicking the kid in the stomach to get him to stop fighting, but only managed to get a new war-cry and a kick back. "Stubborn, annoying brat, learn to speak right, you stinky pig! Stinky piiig!" The smaller one tried to hang himself in the hands from Tala's arm on his hair, kicking out again and yelling back. Ian seemed to be as energetic as he always had been.

"Thugly daddy thlongleg! Thugly daddy thlonglegs! Dummy-bully! Thugly daddy thlonglegs!"

"Stinky piiiig! Hairy midget! Stinky midget! Stinky piiig!"

_Kai couldn't help smile at the absolutely ridiculous scene of the two arguing and fighting down the halls. They still were only kids, both of them._

"Dummy-bully! Dummy-bully! Thugly daddy thlonglegs! Thugly daddy thlonglegs!"

"Stinky piig! Stinky piiiig! Hairy midget! Hairy midget! Stinky piiiig!"

"What _are _you doing?" A confused, yet amused, five-year-old Kai stared at the scene as Tala continued to drag the mini-typhoon through the hall. The redhead stopped walking and shouting to stare at the slate boy in front of him. Also Ian stopped moving, but that was only because he stuck out his tongue and leaned his head back to try and reach up to the hand holding his hair. Probably wanting to bite his captor, but unable to reach up and do it.

But the redhead snorted at the slate, looking as superior to the other as possible when you had a kid in your other hand, who looked quite ridiculous at the moment. "None of your business," the oldest boy snapped, no longer looking at the smallest. Instead, he narrowed his eyes at the boy in his front. "What are you doing out of your cell?"

"Grandfather is here soon," the slate answered, grinning victoriously at the other one, his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall. He had the newly found blue face paint on his face, and his expression was even more Kai-ish than it had been before. The redhead snapped his head higher, as if it was nothing to him, but irritation was visible on his face.

"Tch."

The slate boy rolled his eyes, an angry gleam in the violet eyes. "Tch yourself, you are the one who sleeps in the same room as Boris! I get _one_ night away from my cell! You're such a weak bully. You haven't changed a bit, Tala, and you never will." The smallest boy was forgotten as the two glared at each other, none of them willing to bow under the other. One glare was cold as ice, while the other was burning like fire, and the fire was winning. As always.

"Have you ever considered I'm not interested in changing from what I am?"

"So you will stay as my uncle's lapdog forever? He is not going to keep whatever promise he has given you. I know his ways, he gives every kid in here a promise of help to let them go over to him on their own free will, but he do not intent to keep anything he says. He has never done that to anyone here."

The blue eyes widened in horror. "You... You are lying. I'm different. Boris doesn't care about the others, but he will help me! I'm more to him than any of the others, so he is going to help me while he breaks his promise to the others!" It sounded like he was trying to convince himself, and it was obvious he didn't succeed. In the end, the redhead had already been aware of Boris' methods, but... He didn't want to see it. Didn't want to admit that this was how the things was done, and that he was no different "He will help me get revenge..." One last, weak try to convince himself, but the redheaded boy knew it wasn't true.

Just as Tala was again able to concentrate on the smaller version of Kai, Ian decided they had forgotten about him for long enough, and the kid kicked himself upwards and finally succeeded reaching his hand. He bit, and he bit hard. So hard that he was dropped to the floor, and the three-year-old didn't hesitate to try and escape, not liking the boy Boris had handed him over to.

Tala roared and sprinted after him, the slate's laughter hammering his back as he tackled the small kid. The redhead rose from the floor, the little boy still fighting in his grip. But he didn't care. "I'll get back at you, runt!" he yelled at the slate. "I'll get back at you, and when I do, it'll hurt so badly you will never dare to talk to me again! I'm going to stop that tongue of yours forever, just you wait!" It was a threat of death, an_d it was too hard for Kai to watch. The __one he considered his best friend, promising to kill him... It was so wrong. Whatever was happening in that place he had grown up in, it was good he didn't remember it._

_He didn't want to remember it._

_And as he demanded the picture away and once again found himself in the dark nothing, he began to understand how he could be like that before his coma. He understood why he was so unsure of binding to others. He understood why he didn't trust others, and why he acted like he did. A place that could make cheery redheads into whipping monsters and left the too-feeling, blond giants as a mistrustful, harsh and silent shadow of himself was doomed to destroy the kind one Kai had been... and the kind one his was in this state of unconsciousness. Not to mention Bryan, who was not even a shadow of what he had been, but a machine without feelings and without fantasy. One whom Tala once had said was so small, fearful and vulnerable had literally become nothing, no-one._

_But while the knowledge of these things left him afraid of what he might see next, it also left him curious. How could he establish a bond, or rather how could Tala, who still remembered this intense hate to the slate, establish a bond of strong friendship? And how was the friendship between the blond and the slate to be restored after the incident with the kittens, if it did? And, though the most selfish, the most important question; How the hell did he get out of there?_

* * *

**IMPORTANT NOTICE**: Next update will be on Saturday, a day before my normal updating. From then on, I have no idea how often I will update, and if you are lucky, it will be once a month. My life is changing for the best, but it changes in such a way that I will have minimal time to get to the computer and even less time to write when I'm on it. I'm still writing the story, it isn't stopped, but I will not have time for anything. When vacations comes, though, I will try to update and write all I can.

And to **GatewaysDiary**: I am going to look at my mails every day. That means I will be able still to take a look at your chapters, but it might take two or three days to look them through (I'm not sure about that, _maybe_ it takes less time for me). Also, I won't have my computer at all from the 8th to the 19th this month. Hope it's not a problem, and I hope it won't affect anything, but if it does, you just tell me.

Enjoy in joy! ^^


	17. Sources of hate

Right, my last day home before disappearing! Here is it, and I don't have anything to say, so... Well, bye for the time being, my very few reviewers ^^ And... well, I kinda made an essay in this thingy, didn't I? … Yeah I did...

Disclaimer: Don't own anything else than the plot, my computer and any unknown characters. Beyblade and whatever else I might mention of that kind of stuff is not mine, that's that ^^

Warning: Look back in the chapters...

Reviews:

phoenix-falling: Ow, now you make me feel all special! … again! But I'm just happy you made that review *goes back and read it for the seventh time* Yep, still makes me over-hyper-happy ^^ But I don't expect you to write as much again, never would o.O I have written a review that long once, and I felt kinda drained afterward... But anyway, maybe because I love Dutchmen (that _is_ how you say it, right?)? xD I love their language, anyway, a lovely mix of Danish, English and German (here in Denmark you say that you can at least read Dutch if you can those three languages, and since Denmark is... well, stupid, little Denmark, that makes only the Danes who knows English and German, cause who wants to learn a language only 5 million people speaks when there is languages like English, German, French and Spanish?). But... I really don't feel as good as you say I am, I think you are damn good and... feel like I'm nothing against the really big writers that has/is on this site o.O Alright, now I go on to the actual things you said (sorry I have such a drifting, cloudy mind xD). I like that you note he doesn't remember anything, but Boris' hate towards the younger Kai is something that... Kind of don't get explained in this story. It will in the sequel I still am not sure if I am going to make, but not this one (the only person knowing the reason that isn't the creep himself isn't there in this story...). Voltaire was also very skeptical about letting Kai getting whipped, but changed his mind. But poor, little Bry is just a bit confused, it's not his fault (my way of saying it's going to get worse...)! He is going to get both softer... and more brutish (wow, that was actually a word! Did you know that was a word? (Probably, when you're English...) I just wrote it and thought it was nothing, but it actually meant what I wanted it to mean!)... in this chapter. I don't know how I feel about it at the moment, he's... de... -veloping, kinda... not... Right, on (right on? xD (FREAKING CONCENTRATE, NETE!)), I'm just honored that you like my story, I have zero self-confidence (and yet people say I'm a strong person...?), and I am admiring you quite a bit for 10 miles, so it means a lot to me. Hopefully, questions get answered (and I make a lot of new question while they get answered...). But if I could decide, I wouldn't go away from my computer and I would continue writing, cause that is something I can do forever... but DAMN IT, I have some sense in my head and I think about my future -.-' xD I'll just try to write as often as possible, but... It's gonna get hard for me to keep it all together. But the story will be about 10-20 more chapters, probably about 30 in all, since Kai decided to do a bit more than I intended, both in and out of coma (DAMN HIM), and Tala just don't want to move his freaking ass (you'll understand why him and not Bry later). So... another big, not really concentrating or focused, answer to you, God why did you give me that easily distracted mind?

And then, on to the story ^^

* * *

Sources of hate

* * *

Though dead had occurred in the big city of Paris, it had been so early in the morning only a few night walkers in the city-center had been out. That meant, when they finally arrived, they didn't have to look at too many of the half-eaten bodies of dead people. The adults thought it was a good idea to collect all the bodies and bury them, so that there was a chance to forget them. Or honor them. Or whatever it was that was the idea.

Neither Tala nor Bryan saw the reason behind it, but the bodies was freaking some people out, so... They decided not to complain about it. Maybe it was the best, but dead was dead, and it wasn't like they were really stinking a lot anymore, and they were dead, so they didn't really have to be honored. They had been dead for about 8 months now, summer was around, so why?

It had only taken a while for Bryan to realize that Tala had put the bags on him on purpose, and he had been sulking for a while, nearly jumping over to break his captain's neck. Now that they had reached the old, dead capital, the anger had disappeared when reason had found its way. In the position Tala was in at the moment, with the broken leg and wrist, he was unable to carry anything. But that didn't mean he could put it on Bryan without telling anything.

After walking for a while in the city, they decided to use the houses around them. Anything else would be stupid, why live in shelters made of sticks and tarpaulin when there were perfectly good houses around them? The only bad thing was the dead bodies lying in the beds of nearly every single house, but since they had already decided to do something about them, it wouldn't be a problem for long. Except that many weren't comfortable sleeping in the beds after a dead body had been in it for a few months. But changing the sheets and madras helped the most people.

Besides, everyone from the teenager-human-group had massive pain in their backs after sleeping on the bare ground.

On the forth day, after having buried the dead the day before with help from everyone, there was calm in the place the two Blitzkrieg-Boys had chosen to live in, an apartment about trice the size of the one they had lived in before. To Tala's great happiness, the people in the apartment had hair products of nearly every kind, and he was just now taking a bath in the bathroom and combing his red hair, ecstatic about finally getting his old hair back. He had to use a scissor, too, and kindly asked Bryan if he wanted to get a haircut. Though needing it, Bryan had refused.

"Bryan, my water's getting cold!" the redhead yelled through the apartment.

"So?" the emerald asked, not really wanting to know the answer. It didn't really sound good.

"So, I would like you to find some new water! Just one barrel. Take it from the river, cook it and come back with it."

"It's going to take a lot of time," Bryan said, not wanting to do anything at all. He had found a Rubik's Cube in one of the child rooms, and was trying to solve it, and it was a little hard with one hand still broken. After a few months away from those things, it required a little amount of thinking. But since there was neither access to water nor electricity, and it _was _still his captain asking, he might be supposed to...

"I can wait that long!" the wolf answered, and the emerald rose from his seat and left, coming back half an hour later with the water in a big, heavy barrel. At least, they were living in the ground floor, so there was no stairs on his long way from the Seine back to their new home. It was a lot of hard work already... Well, with a broken hand, at least.

He kicked the door open, finding Tala sitting on the not-working toilet with a towel covering him, the hair still soaked, the body still soaped and a _biiig_ smile on his face. The bandages and sticks to his broken limps were lying neatly on the floor beside him, but he refused to need help. "Thanks, Bryan! I love you!" he exclaimed cheerfully.

The declaration frightened Bryan, and he threw the barrel of water in the bathtub and ran back to the living-room to let Tala finish his bathing. The emerald had not yet taken a bath, since he didn't really see the point. When he was able to take bath regularly, he didn't appreciate the feeling of getting cleaned up – and that for a good reason. And since getting a bath was a lot of trouble, he couldn't see the reason to start the habit and walk down to get the water.

After having solved the Rubik's cube in different ways for about another fifteen minutes, he heard Tala get up from the water. It caused him to look up, and his eyes drifted through the room that really wasn't his. Through one of the windows, he saw a few people walk by. It was a big part of the professional bladers, on their way towards this apartment... and in the crowd of well-known, he got a glimpse of bright, pink hair...

His eyes widened, and he took his hand to his heart as if in pain. He was gonna throw up... no, even worse than that... tears began falling their way down his cheeks. It hurt so badly... And though it was only one place... Bryan gripped his shirt tightly with his hand, over the heart, and leaned forward as his body began to shake again. It was too much... too much for him. It... it was like a little sting... but it was too much... it was like a little, hot flame... but it hurt so...

Just done with setting the hair and getting on the bandages _alone_, Tala came out from the bathroom with, and for a moment, he stared. He knew he had to get away, a lot of the same symptoms as last time Bryan lost it was showing, but he couldn't let his friend stay when it was so obvious that it hurt. "Bry, remember what I said about calming down?" he made a weak try and took a step forward, leaning towards his crutch. There was fear in his blue eyes.

But worry was more dominant.

But when Bryan heard the other one nearing him, the click that was the only thing missing came. The little flame in his heart became a burning fire, and though it was something most people wanted more than anything else, it cause the emerald to collapse. He fell to the floor, but had only been down for two seconds when he got ready, and he jumped up and directly at the redhead with a growl. Though it wasn't in his eyes, he was going to kill...

Knowing the desperate situation he was in, Tala was fast to take his crutch in his good hand and throw it at his friend, and he hit so well that the emerald stumbled. Then, the redhead jumped on his one leg towards the door, and only barely managed to close the door behind him. Bryan's body hammered into it, and the group that had been on their way to the jumping back in surprise when they found Tala lying in front of the door. He had, by mistake, put weight on the broken foot in his attempt of closing the door before Bryan was able to get to it.

Inside the room, the emerald was taking the photos of the family that had lived here down from the walls and threw it everywhere, and small fractures of glass got shattered across the floor. He didn't hear the voices outside the door, to outraged on nothing to care. When there were no more photos, he found every other piece of furniture that was near him. It took him a long while to lose victims of his feelings, but when no more furniture was standing, he collapsed in splinters and pieces of the chairs and tables and the glass of a window he had thrown the Rubik's cube through.

There, he began crying. There, he sat down and hid his eyes with his hands, his body shaking from the sobs. This was the first time he really, consciously cried ever since Tala had whipped him, and he could feel he needed it. He didn't try to stop it. The others tried to hide their feelings and saw them as weaknesses, and it was the fewest who cried without feeling ashamed of it at all. They saw it as a hole their pride if they cried, and it wasn't only Abbey-kids.

But Bryan didn't feel shame. He didn't feel weak for crying. In some way, it made him feel strong. The feelings he had been able to hold back last time he tried to destroy his surroundings had come out when the stinging flame in his heart broke loose. He cried for his mother's death. He cried for loneliness in the dungeons of Hell. He cried for every time they had used pointless chemicals on him to get his physical strength up. He cried for the disrespect he had met from his teammates and hadn't cared for the first year they were working together. And for the death of the big blond.

When he finally got calmed down a little, he took a look at the destruction and immediately felt the pull just to take the gun from his belt and end everything. He rose from the floor and looked around, afraid to find Tala's dead body in the midst of the chaos he had created around him. When he couldn't find the redhead, he sighed in relief and was about to sit down again, the feelings still raging and the tears still falling from his eyes. But he saw something...

A paper. Lying in the middle of the floor, not even creased. And not long away, a pen was lying. As if...

He didn't resist the urge he got, and when he took the two things that had miraculously survived his feelings, he closed his eyes. Letting the many uncontrollable feeling flow over him again, he took the pen to the white paper and began writing as he sat in the dark room that he had completely and utterly destroyed...

_For so many years, I have been unable to feel. Now that those feelings are back, I wish they weren't. I don't know if it's wrong that I want them to go away, and I don't know if I'm an ungrateful bastard for wanting my feelings to be thrown right back in the confinement they have been in for so long. I have looked upon the feeling, the caring mother and the smiling child, with the weak, little spawn of envy I have been able to feel. And now that I have gotten what I wanted, am I ungrateful for wanting to turn it back? Am I so wrong for being afraid of feeling?_

_I know it's wrong. It's wrong for me to want to go back to live as a machine made of flesh and blood. Or, at least, I claim I know this. What I actually know, of the truth, is that I do not know anything at all. Tala was right, when he screamed at me for my stupidity, because I was feeling good about hurting another human being. I don't know anything about this world. I have watched, watched for so long I know all the facts, but the facts won't help me be here, as a person with feelings. _

_I knew the difference between right and wrong before, when I did not feel. Now, everything is so confused, so torn and ripped apart, that I have forgotten all I knew. I told Tala I knew the difference of wrong and right, but I don't... _

_I'm a genius. That's what my mom said, when she cared for me in my earliest years. Yet I don't know anything. How can a genius not know anything? I know my mom was right when she said it, and I know she loved me. And how did I repay her? I shot her, when I was seven, to please my superior, not caring for her cries of happiness for finally finding me after my disappearing three years before, or caring for her pleas of mercy when I pointed the gun at her._

_I'm a monster. A freak. That's what happens when you don't have feelings for more than half of your life. The feelings that others are happy to feel... they hurt me. Why is it like that? I don't have to wonder. I have already figured it out, I'm not considered a genius for nothing. After... what is it, 13 years of my 17 years without feelings?, if I could bear to feel anything at all, I would be wrong. That's a weird way to say it, when I'm already as wrong as I am._

_Until now, hate has been my companion. The only way I can see the hate is as black flames, which lighted my empty, dark inside whenever I had trouble doing my superior's orders. But the hate I feel now, every now and then, is so intense I feel like throwing up whenever it comes pondering over me. And that is even what I am nearly used to. _

_Happiness? That is the feeling I fear the most. So I thought, until something I don't know showed itself to me for... how long it is earlier today. It was so strong that I lost myself again and reacted violently, the only way I know to react. And now, I sit in the remnants of the furniture I broke into pieces in this room, writing whatever comes into my mind to understand myself. The feeling that made me react... I don't know what it is. I don't understand feelings..._

_I think it started by the heart, a warmth spreading out. Even then, it was strong. I began to cry, the tears streaming down my cheeks, because it hurt me, already when it was merely stinging in my heart. Tala was in the bathroom, doing whatever it was he was doing. I don't remember what. But when he came back, the warmth began to spread. What might be supposed to bring happiness sent me into massive pain, and I lost my sight and hearing for a moment. _

_I think I charged at him when he came into view. I'm not sure, cause everything happened so fast and I don't think I really was conscious... The only thing I'm certain of is the pain. And I have proof of my reaction by looking around me. I don't think a single piece of furniture is left unbroken. The only way I know I didn't kill Tala is because his body isn't in the house. I could easily have killed him. I'm about ten times stronger than him. If not more. And it wouldn't have been my first kill..._

_I don't want to live. I'm a plague to Tala and to the world around me. And not only that, I'm not getting anything good out of my new feelings. It all hurts, too intense for my normally empty mind._

_The only good thing about it is that I have imagination. I haven't had that ever since I was 6, and it's fun to think of impossible things... I want to fly. I want to be up there, without the help from a machine. Not beside the birds, but just see thing from up there. I don't want to be a part of a flock, just... try to fly._

_And the fun thing about it is that it won't come true no matter what. I actually think it is amusing. I like fun. It doesn't hurt... Else, I should just take the gun from my belt and point it at my head again, now that Tala aren't here to stop me anymore._

_Writing actually helped me calming down. I still don't know anything, but... at least I have him. I actually think Tala really... likes me. That would be a first. Except for Hilary, but she didn't bring any good, and I don't really like her. If I should find a reason not to kill myself, it might be the thing to stop me from doing it now that I have realized it... He really cares. But that does stop my urge to b_

The emerald looked up suddenly, lifting the pen for the first time. The feelings suddenly stopped, and with them his writing. But he could feel the need of using even more energy than he already had by throwing and destroying the furniture. He didn't even bother finishing the half-done sentence before he stood up and stalked out of the room, slamming the door behind him. Not because he was angry, but just to hear and feel the effect of his own powers.

He could feel his broken hand throbbing, but his need of adrenaline to get rid of the upcoming boredom was more important than his health.

* * *

_After having hardened himself up a little, the slate began to wonder how he should take the next step... Was finding out how he might get friends with the two if he did... Was that what he was-_

_Before he got to finish the thoughts, another scene came, and he forgot his troubles when he was intro_duced to a dormitory full of kids. Of course it was still the abbey, and it seemed they were ready to go back to bed on their uneven and hard madrases. They were mostly from the age 10-14, about fifteen kids in all. One of the few exception was a redhead sitting on a bed in the far corner, him staring out in the air to his front and the hand caressing the whip that still, even after two more years had passed, was in his belt. He was obviously not a part of the other kids.

There were twenty beds in all, which meant there was places for new people. And one came, one was supposed to enter today. Not that the others cared, cause it happened every time another kid got good enough to be with 'the elite'. Boris suddenly appeared with two boys by his side. One was Spencer, and no feelings showed themselves on his face anymore. The blond was as big as always, muscular, but he seemed... empty. And the other boy...

There was nothing left of the Kai that had been put into the place. He had already had the blue facepaint at the age of five to get rid of the illusion of innocence that nature had forced on him, but now... If it hadn't been because he was seven, the best description would have been goth. The clothes were all black, chains hung by his hips and on the jacket he had, and he had a belt around his waist decorated with a skeleton in the front. He walked with the head down, the violet eyes hidden by the slate bangs. But underneath that, you would be able to see two hateful eyes locked on the blond on Boris' other side.

Every eye set on Boris and the two boys, and people more or less stopped their doings. Immediately when the purple-haired man came into sight, Tala seemed to wake up, and he rose from the bed... only to begin scowling at the sight of the two. Or rather, the double-haired of them. "Boris, sir, mind explaining why that is going to stay here?" he spat, apparently not caring for the blond at all. Boris just smirked at him, and the stubborn look in his eyes.

"For the same reason you got here. And the same reason as everybody else. You are my elite, my bests. And I have my little prime-children here..." Boris tapped the two kids by his side, which caused the violet-eyes to send him a vicious glare. Definitely _not_ a prime-child. "And of course you, too. You will never be surpassed by anyone." Those words laid a smile on the face of the redhead, and he looked down and let his annoyance pass for now as he bowed.

"Right, sir. But I'm curious..." The redhead was the only one able to say those words and not get punished. That's just how it is. "What team will they get on? They are still both young, though Spencer is a little older than me... Not that it will get me to-" But the man cut him off, knowing what the kid was about to say.

And the man's red eyes shots lightning. "You _are _going to work with them. The only reason why you haven't got a team yet is because no-one is good enough for you... Finally, I have found two." The redhead opens his mouth to protest, but was once again cut off. "I have used the last four years to train you to become a leader. If you work alone, my effort will be spilled. A leader can't lead if there is no-one he can give orders, and then, you are no leader."

Once again Tala was about to argue, but shut his mouth and let the protests stay in his mind. His eyes fell upon Kai, who was still standing with his head down. Though it might look like he was submissive, and aura around him told otherwise. "What about him? Am I supposed to give orders to _Voltaires grandson_, the _great, invincible Kai Hiwatari_ who is supposed to lead us when he grows out of those costumes?"

Small Kai didn't react, simply stood as he did before. Boris, on the other hand, sighed, only wanting to leave and get it done and over with. "He will be second in command. He'll be on your team for until he reaches the age of 13, then he will be transferred." Tala snorted at the information. Six years with that kid? Boris, though, didn't want to argue more with the redheaded boy, and just pushed the two boys by his side forward. "Find your beds." Then, he left.

Spencer went for the first bed in sight and took it, not looking at the other kids. He had tried to get to a dormitory before, and he knew some reacted unkindly when looking them into the eyes... But the slate hadn't tried it before. He lifted his head and looked around in the room and the beds, not seeming to notice that there was people in there. The options he had – there were two beds in middle of the row with neighbors in them, a bed beside Spencer, or a bed beside Tala...

Hard choices... He narrowed his eyes and went over to the bed beside Spencer, and the blond's eyes widened. He knew his old cellmate hated him, though he had never known why, and now he chose to sleep beside him? "Why?" the blond asked, forcing the surprise off his face again. He who show feelings must bow under death.

It didn't look like the slate boy was liking the fact that he should talk... but after having sat on the bed for ten minutes without looking up, once again hiding his eyes behind his bangs, the dry mouth coughed attention, and everyone else than Tala looked over towards him. The redheaded boy seemed to be back in the world he had been in before Boris had shown himself. "Because we have to stick together when our leader is our enemy."

The words were cold, and they awoke the redhead and made him turn his head to send the slate a glare as cold as the tone in the other one's voice had been. But once again, the slate had hid his eyes behind by looking down, getting ready to sleep like everybody else. The others in the room smiled, though. Despite being younger than the rest and soon-to-be-fucking-authority, they decided a kid who was ready to fight against that redhead and forget his hate for that purpose was a good enough kid.

_It took a very long while for Kai before he realized that was all that was to reestablishing a friendship between himself and the blond. There was nothing more, he stood, staring at them all night while they slept, then as they rose from their beds. It seemed his younger self was adaptable enough to completely forget his hate to the blond because of the killed off kittens when a bigger threat than the loss of animals came across._

_The slate teen didn't know if that was something to be proud of or not as he watched the two new teammates walk out of the room together, leaving the redhead by himself. It didn't look like the redhead cared at all to the teen, as he just caressed his weapon and seemed to wait... For what, Kai found out a few moments later, when Boris appeared, asking if he was ready to work... Kai didn't have to wonder what, as Tala immediately took out the whip._

_Left alone in the dark dormitory, Kai just wanted to know how they ended up... He was not too interested in how the redhead ended like that, it was- _A scene of a living-room began growing. On the couch, a man and a woman sat, the woman with the most beautiful waterfall of fire flowing down her back and icy blue eyes, while the man was a muddy-blond with dark-brown eyes. The man had a very broad stature with a quite big stomach in the middle, while the woman was slender all the way down. Not small, a little taller than the average woman, just naturally thin.

It wasn't hard to see who Tala had his looks from.

_Expecting the worst as a cause of his thoughts, Kai waited giddily on chaos to come, actually not wanting to see whatever it was he was about to. But it didn't. It seemed it was late in the night, and since Tala had been four last time his parents was living, he was either that or younger, so the boy had to be asleep. And just as Kai was about to feel safe, he heard a do_or creak open. The two persons continued to watch the screen of an old television as a gun was pointed towards them from the crack in the door to the living-room. The gun clicked, ready to fire...

_Pure instincts forced Kai to jump forward, and he flew right through the man, who straigh_tened up at this weird feeling and instinctively pushed himself and his wife to the ground. The bullet was shot, and the man turned his head, still protecting the woman. He shot the door a glare, so stubborn and icy it was impossible not to become wary, despite the eyes were having the wrong color. Normally, that glare was blue...

But the woman wasn't going to let herself get pushed around either, and as the next shot was fired, she pulled her husband in to get protected by the couch. "Я найду Тала (I'll get Tala)," she said, her eyes filled with worry as she looked toward the door on the opposite side of the room. The man just nodded and rose, attacking the murderer without even a second of doubt in his mind. But at the door, by the creak, a little, four-year-old stared at the scene.

The man with the gun ignored his obvious opponent at first, aiming the gun at the redheaded woman. She stood up and was running, trying to get to the door as her husband should try and fight the gunman... It just didn't go that well. Just before she reached the door, a new shot was heard, and she fell, right in front of the little boy.

The man cried out in horror at the sound of the woman's scream of pain, and he aimed a punch towards the head of the masked figure by the door. Fist and jaw connected, and the gun flew through the room and landed behind the couch. And the little boy saw this. With the icy eyes stiffly attached to the gun, the small redhead slowly opened the door, stealthily walking past his moth_er, and Kai kept sight of the boy instead of the loud fight behind him, seeing the woman using her last strength in life to beg her boy to flee, to go back to his room and jump out the window and contact the neighbors. He saw the now well-known look in the redhead's eyes, that cold, emotionless glaze, a four-year-old promising to _kill. "Tala..." the woman whispered, blood slowly seeping into the carpet she was dying on.

But the boy was walking for the gun, not looking at his mother as she finally shut her eyes and breathed her last breath, walking slowly to not get attention from his mother's murderer. As he finally reached it, he took it in his hands and tried to aim, his arms shaking from the exhaustion. The gun was heavy, but his determination weighed heavier, and the boy strained his fingers to fire the gun towards the fighting men.

Though it seemed Tala was unable to with his current strengt_h, Kai chose not to take chances, and chose he did _not_ want to see a four-year-old, or a friend, murder someone. STOP! his mind screamed, just as a loud thud told someone, probably Tala's father from the new wave of hate flowing over the small boy's face, got stabbed in the gut and probably was bleeding to death just like the woman. Closing his eyes shut, Kai was back in the dark nothingness he was beginning to know well. His mind was not good with the past, and he just kept his eyes shut tightly._

_He didn't know what to think or do, and he had lost track of his original purpose. The scene had forced itself upon him, and he hadn't turned away, and now he didn't know... what the fuck it was he actually should have done. He knew it was important, but the image of a four-year-old with the gun..._

_From the sound, it seemed the scene had come back, but he had still closed his mental eyes. He could hear the TV-program they had been watching was there again, and he could hear their peaceful voices talk, knowing it would be destroyed in a few minutes._

_What he was actually supposed to do suddenly found its way to him, and his eyes shot open as it all began to come together again. How did we get friends again? he asked the nothingness, and a new scene began to grow. The sound of beyb_lades smashing against beyblades and people yelling commands to each other or their blades filled a big gym full of small and big beystadiums. On their way inside was Tala, Spencer and Kai, the last two beside each other and visibly trying to ignore that the redhead in front of them was even alive.

They reached Boris, who was standing in the middle of the room, and all of them stopped and stood up straight, as if they were soldiers. "What are my team supposed to do today, Boris, sir?" Tala asked, and there was a slight change in his appearance from last time. Though his glare was still stubborn, the cold was easing slightly, giving in to the new feelings that began to reign his inside.

There is many ways you can bully a person. You can call him bad things, giving him pain on the inside. You can hit him and beat him up, giving him pain on the outside. Or you can ignore him, making him convinced he means nothing to no-one, even if someone, like Boris, show him that he likes him a lot and believes him to be something.

And it seemed the two boys' way of bullying was getting to the redhead. There was still confidence in his glare, but it was weakening. It was still a cold glare, but a new feeling of actually experiencing loneliness by being alone in this hell-hole. And either Boris could see this, or he just hated the two other boys, cause he sent them a glare that got Spencer to look down and bite his lower lip. The slate boy, on the other hand, met the glare from behind his hair.

"A team-battle," Boris said. Didn't sound good for Tala, apparently, as the boy widened his eyes in slight fear. He was supposed to... to trust those two? Covering up the fear again to not let anyone see any weakness, the redhead opened his mouth to protest, as he seemed to do to everything Boris ordered him to. But Boris didn't seem to want to play the game today, and he nodded towards the beystadium they were battling in. "You know what happens if you lose."

It was a warning that made Tala snort, though he seemed to fight pretty hard not to do so. Yeah, how should they not know when they had been told what would happen every time they went to fight someone? Absolute extermination as a lab-rat, only surviving if the experiments ended right. Which they very rarely did, because all the small factors as blood-type, conformation, weight, the mix of chemicals and then the actual procedure should be right. And since the scientists had no-one to try on, the procedure and the mix of chemicals was the most lethal part of the experiments.

The group went over, the oldest and youngest still making it very clear they did not know or see their captain. But as they were talking quietly to each other, they realized who their opponents was. On the other side of the disc, four boys, all of them at least two years older than Spencer, stood, ready to trash the smaller boys. The two boys stared at them, Kai hiding the surprised glare behind his bangs. How... how should they...?

There wasn't even hesitation when Tala turned to his two not-so-much teammates. There was only one thing they could do if they were to survive, one man down and disadvantage in age. No matter how much he disliked the two, the thought came to his head naturally. And for that reason, he didn't even hesitate when he spoke to them.

"Teamwork. None of us can afford to lose."

The two stared at him as if he had grown another head – but at least they looked at him and they didn't interrupt him as he spoke. The cold eyes stared at them, daring them to defy him. Then, the slate kid snorted. He _had_ learned to trust no-one, so it wasn't fully his own fault. "As. If." The two glared at each other for a long time. Tala's natural feeling of teamwork was met by Kai's learned instincts with disgust.

"Kai... I think he's right." One of the rare occasions where Spencer spoke louder than a whisper, it seemed, cause the two stared at him a little while with the same look Tala was given just seconds before. "It's just... They are more than us... And it's not like you're that great at beyblading..." It was known to all that Spencer was the best beyblader.

"No," the slate just answered, as short and precise as ever. "I trust neither of you, and I'm not going to work with any of you... I am strong enough on my own," he stated finally, first glaring at Tala, then the blond through his bangs.

They were just about to begin an argument, two of them at least, but Boris' voice demanded all bladers to get ready to launch. The red- and the duo-haired stared each other down as they got ready, though fear was visible on all from the younger team. How could they do this? Truth was obvious, even for the one who was refusing to see reason in teamwork. It was impossible for them to win. Kai was just sure it would go better if they battled individually.

The sign to begin was yelled through the room, and three beyblades landed on the ground in one side of the beystadium with four blade on the other. Immediately after landing, the blade belonging to Spencer sped headstrong towards the group of four, whom had found a formation of a square. When the blue blade was just about to hit the four, they parted to avoid him. They seemed constantly aware of what the other were doing and where they were.

"Get the redhead!" It wasn't hard to agree on a target when the Abbey's most hated kid was on the battlefield, and the formation began to reestablish itself around the gray blade to rid him from the game. The redheaded boy cursed while the slate boy didn't even try to hide his smirk.

"Get away! Now!" _It was now Kai realized none of the blades were having a bitbeast. And that meant the redhead was in more trouble than first assumed. A beyblade without a bitbeast was slower and had less stamina than a blade with a bitbeast, and since the bitbeast was nearly able to decide for itself, words li_ke that would have been far more useful. But there was no Wolborg, and Tala gasped when he himself felt the impact of four blades slamming against his own. It took all his strength and concentration to keep standing.

But the four didn't give him time to recover. They were just about to attack him again, when they realized the blond's blue blade came soaring towards them again. They split up, and it was only by luck, or Spencer's skill, that the lighter blue blade didn't slam Tala out of the stadium. It was just the slightest little tap the gray blade got, but Tala was still panting heavily after the four's attack, and he shot an angry glare at the bigger boy.

"Look out, idiot!" he sneered, and Spencer froze at his words. So did his blade, and he didn't unfreeze even when the small Kai gasped in surprise as he got the new victim of the well-functioning group. His dark blue blade tried to find a way out, but it wasn't there, and the four circled him tauntingly. "Damn it, Kai!" Tala snarled.

"It's not my faul-" It ended in a gasp when the gray blade threw itself in and shot the blue blade out of the way in the last second, which resulted in him getting another fit from all the four at once again. His knees nearly gave in, but he still shot a glare to Kai. He was the reason they didn't do well because he had refused to work with his team.

"Just get a grip and stop wasting your time!" the redhead said, nice enough not to point out that it, indeed, _was_ his fault. The whole body of the boy was shaking from the exhaustion as he turned his attention to Spencer. "Get them off my back again, but stay close to me," he commanded, and finally, the blond began moving again. He nodded, and sent the blade after the four again. The moved, and Tala was able to breath when they did no longer pressure him. He turned his attention to Kai, about to order him to be a part of the team. "K-"

"Tala, why did you push me out of the way?" the youngest boy asked, staring at the other one through the bangs.

"Kai, just fucking get over here so they can't take us down separately!" Tala sneered, not willing to answer.

"Why?" the slate asked again, his eyes deadly as he didn't make the dark blue blade move. The opponent were closing in on him now.

"Kai! Work. With. Me. Or we'll _lose_." The exhausted eight-year-old began to sound begging. The enemy was getting ready to attack the slate.

"Answer my question, Tala. Why?"

"Because you are my teammate, and no matter WHAT I feel about them, I WON'T let ANYONE in my care get hur- SPENCER, OVER TO HIM, _NOW_!" The blond nodded and wiped over again, using his better speed and strength to push one of the four into one of the other ones, weakening them slightly. They all moved backwards and away, getting ready for next attack. "Get over to me, both of you, and get ready to separate one of them. I-"

"Why are we going over to you when we are together? Can't you just come over instead?" Kai asked, just to be annoying, and it was pretty obvious. But Tala, shaking from exhaustion and pretty beaten up, wasn't in the mood.

"If I move the blade too much, I lose the last of my energy. I'm going to try and be a part of the attack, and that means I can't waste the little bit of energy I have left, so get over here!" Though still cold and still closed, and still not wanting to have anything to do with them, Tala was protecting them. Still hating them, still hurt because of their treatment of him, he was protecting them, just because he was the leader. Just because...

The young Kai's eyes shifted, then he nodded to the blond. They moved over, and even received a smile from the redhead in doing so. For some reason, the sight of that gave the slate boy a slight tucking in the corner of his lips. That was the closest thing to a smile long seen, and the two blue blades kept themselves between the enemy and the wobbling gray one. "Who is our target, and what is the plan?" the blond asked in his near-whispering voice.

"We go for the red blade, it is their leaders and the strongest one. Spencer, you attack them head on as you have done until now, they know you are strong enough to threw them right out of the stadium. When they shatter, Kai and I go for the red one. Spencer is strong enough to keep the rest away. If they do not pressure you, come and help us. The faster we kill them, the bigger is my chance of keeping alive, and the easier can we get it over with."

_Kai watched as they followed the plan, and he couldn't help but admire their ability to work together despite only just having made up for what seemed like a small matter of time. He realized how he and the redhead were perfect in a battle together, spinning as one body while they slowly forced the enemy out of the stadium with Spencer's protection. _

_Though Tala was wobbling and looked like he was about to fall every second, he managed to keep the blade spinning right until the moment they stopped the last enemy blade by what the slate teen could only assume was sheer stubbornness. Then, he fell to his hands and knee and coughed up blood, showing just how much it had cost him to keep Kai in the game. The two others didn't know what to do or say, just stared at the redhead, but Kai felt that the relationship between the three was getting better after this._

* * *

The relaxing sound of a purring motor soothed him, and he leaned back in the leather-seat. He had always wanted this kind of car. He just hadn't known it, but he knew it had been always when he stomped down the speeder once again and the motor roared and the whole car jumped forward. He used the handbrake and spun two and a half rounds and then drove forward again, heading directly for a building. In the last second, he forced the steering-wheel to the side and avoided collision with inches to keep him alive, since the seat-belt sat unbuckled.

Maniac-driving gave Bryan a kick that only one thing topped, and he sped up again, turning a corner and was forced to make an abrupt turn not to run over some of the adult-nekos, who was walking by. They tried to yell at him, but he was already a hundred miles gone and had turned the next three corners before they realized who he was.

Yeah, he had certainly always wanted such a car! He just never had the emotions to know it...

Something appeared in front of him, and he stood on the brakes to make the car stop, closing his eyes for a short second when horror filed his inside at the thought of hitting. Damn it, Tala, LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING!

The redhead shrieked and jumped to the side to get out of the way, but the car didn't even run over the place he had been before. The emerald had fast reflexes and better driving-skills than most of the racers, and he had used everything he had not to hit the wolf. The redhead stood up again, glaring angrily, but then his eyes widened at the sight of the brilliant beauty in front of him. He gaped, and Bryan stepped out of it with a triumphant smirk.

"Look what I found," he said, caressing the dark-green roof of the killer-car he intended to drive from now to the end of eternity. He had never had a lot of interest in cars, but Ian had been an extreme enthusiast, and he had poked to the little curiosity the emerald had had at the time. So, he had recognized this nearly immediately, and the smirk sitting on his face right this moment had been there ever since the discovery. Ian would _kill _for this car, his favorite of all times, and he would succeed, since he was the best trained soldier of soldiers. "The 'Beast' in all its perfection. Some rich-man had it, and I took the car-keys from all the bodies, so I haven't even had to destroy the poor thing to start it."

Tala, too, had a hobby of admiring cars, and he still gaped like a fish. Then, finally shutting his mouth, he lifted the hand without the broken wrist and touched the front. "BMW... E39 M5... Damn Ian will get jealous for this when I go get him..." The wolf's voice was only just above a whisper. "I never thought I would see a car in this class... not ever..." Then, the redhead woke up a little, and he grinned up at the emerald. "You are _so_ gonna give me a ride."

"As you wish," Bryan grinned back, not wanting to waste his time standing on his own legs. Of course, none of the two cared that neither had license, they knew already that they were more than capable of driving, and the two sat inside. "Ready?" the emerald asked, sending his captain a funny look.

"Of course," Tala said, rolling his eyes as he leaned back in the comfortable seat. But he wasn't, really. Bryan slammed the speeder down again, and they ran directly towards a building. Tala screamed in a mix of downright fright and adrenaline rush, then, when Bryan turned and got them to safety, only to nearly run directly into a tree, the wolf laughed maniacally. How Bryan managed to have kept the car clean and looking new and perfect until this moment, Tala had to wonder, for he would have expected it to have lost quite a few side mirrors and gotten cuts and maybe lost a lamp or three. Guess Bryan found it valuable.

They missed the tree, was about to collide with a dead car, getting around that it seemed there was a little too much of nothing to collide into. Once again using the handbrake, Bryan swept the car around to get new things to avoid. All the while, Tala was laughing hysterically, as if he was in the funniest roller coaster in the world. Neither of them seemed to think they needed to use the seat belt, though they both got thrown around in their seats.

After a while, when he got a bit used to the fast car's wild movements, Tala was able to control his laughter, and he just clenched the door to make sure he didn't end up falling into Bryan or wherever he might be able to fly to. He let his eyes drift away from the road and into the excited, green eyes by his side.

"I read what you had written," he said, ignoring the trees and building flying past them outside. The car slowed considerably, but was still driving far too fast. Some God seemed to be with them, as they would have been dead or have killed someone if anyone came past them that didn't mean as much to the driver as Tala did. The wolf saw how the gray-haired teen's eyes narrowed. "I must admit, I'm a bit happy... I thought you were on your way down..."

The hesitation in his voice got Bryan to shift his eyes from the road, just a moment, to see the expression that showed on the other one's face. Regret, for the most part. Regret was a feeling Bryan had yet to feel, but he knew how it looked. And he knew Tala had a short moment of actually showing his true feelings...

"I thought you were on your way down my... With Boris to kill, you have... But from what I read, you know far more about everything than I thought. You aren't as cold to your feelings as I feared, so..."

"What do you want from me?" Bryan demanded, now driving so slowly he was just about the legal speed of the road, and the green eyes constantly shifted between the road in his front and the redhead by his side. He felt... strangely cornered by the one beside him, and he didn't like the feeling. But in a car like this, he couldn't afford to lose control.

"... Nothing, I guess. I was just beginning to wait for the moment you would begin to walk around a freely b- Hey, there's Enrique and Mystel! Want to give them a ride?" There was a sly look in the icy blue eyes, and the laughing face was back on the redhead as he turned to watch the two. At the sound of the car, they turned around with confused looks. No surprise there, since they hadn't heard that sound very long.

Immediately when Bryan stopped, he opened the door to the car and got out. He winked at the redhead, whom just got an even grimmer smile on. They both knew the two would refuse to even go inside the car if they realized the one driving was an insane genius with emotional problems. So, Bryan disappeared as fast as he could into the shadows, and though unable to hear a thing, he was staring at their mouth to make out their words.

Enrique was the first to reach the car, and he seemed extremely furious. "What are you doing with Oliver's car?" he asked, though being too noble to let the anger show too much on his face. Because of the car, Bryan was unable to see Tala's answer, but it was pretty obvious anyway. "No," Bryan made out of the Italian's face. "It is... was his dad's, so..." His face went back to the sorrowful face that was the only thing they had seen the first weeks in the cells.

But it seemed Tala had spoken, cause the more athletic blond suddenly spoke. While he read the other one's words, the emerald tried to get the blood out from underneath his nails. It was pretty hard, since the hand he used to get the blood out was the same one that was broken. And it did _not _like that he used it to change gear and pull up the handbrake. Not that the emerald really cared, he was still not feeling pain properly, and it wasn't like the hand would stop working if he used it. It was only one knuckle that was acting like it was hurt.

"No, we can't, but I'd love to get a ride when we are done. It looks like a pretty cool car-" The blond took a step back and lifted his hand to apologize with an amused look on his face, obviously having fun. The Italian was yelling at him that it was definitely _not_ just a cool car, but the best BMW ever made. Maybe Tala was yelling, too, since the smaller blond was shifting his amused gaze towards them both. "Anyway, we are looking for Lee. He's missing, and has been missing ever since he went for the toilet when you were still with us... Many are worried."

Something inside Bryan flinched, but he didn't want to react or understand it. But it was a very small pang of guilt.

"Well, we could do that... But in then we are going to drive slowly, or else we might miss him. Where's the driver?" the Italian said, suddenly looking suspicious. "Oh, well... Okay, I haven't been in that car for a long while anyway, why did the guy with the least interest in cars get _the coolest_? It even has German origins, Robert's parents could have bought it instead!"

The Italian went inside the car with the other blond, and with fast, long strides, Bryan got up to the car again. As he opened the door, the grinning face of the redhead turned to him. The two blonds still didn't realize they were on their way to a death-ride. "How was the bathroom?" the redhead asked, and Bryan raised his eyebrow at the comment. Of course, it was what he had expected him to tell them, but that stupid question?

"You are going in detail," Bryan deadpanned as he sat down and closed the door, giving Tala a half-angry stare. Then, he turned his eyes to the rear mirror and looked at his new victims. They probably wouldn't react by laughing, as Tala had done. "Hello, boys. Are you excited?" The two looked at him, and Mystel stiffened at the sight of their driver while Enrique acted by immediately unbuckle his seat belt again, so he could get out.

But Bryan weren't really fit on that plan, and he slammed the speeder down again, and the Italian gasped in fear and surprise. Seeing their insane speed and that they were heading towards a dead car, he buckled the seat belt again, though it probably wouldn't help much when they didn't have access to a real hospital, and that any car with this speed would curl up in a collision. "Get me out, now!" the Italian blond demanded, obviously scared shitless.

Tala just began laughing hysterically again from both the drive and the trick they had pulled, but that only helped the two get the image of death being around the corner. Mystel had paled from his normal tan to be white as a sheet as he still was frozen in shock of realizing who was driving. Enrique was demanding them to stop or go around that tree or turn away from that building, looking like he was just about to puke. And fear was evident in both pair of blue eyes...

Until Mystel suddenly began chuckling. Though he was still white from surprise and fearing for his life, the athlete couldn't help but join Tala in his laugh. Mystel wasn't one to let himself fear, and this kind of thing was something he found extremely amusing, and it was with horror that Enrique found his partner joining the enemy.

"I'm surrounded by psychos!" the Italian cried when the other blond let go of the door he had found support by and let the seat belt be the only thing keeping him from flying through the car. "Bryan, stop the – OH, FOR GOD'S SAKE, WHY DO YOU CONSTANTLY HEAD DIRECTLY TOWARDS BUILDINGS?" The flew to the side and missed by what Enrique was quite sure was inches, and his already pale face turned sickly green. "Stop the car! Now! Damn you all! We should find Lee! Damn you!" he yelled through the car, the only one not enjoying the sick driving.

The others didn't see Bryan flinch slightly, but he decided to do something and came up with a plan in a few second. Without slowing down or stopping his adrenaline-making turns and speeds, he neared the place where he had left Lee a few hours before. When they turned the corner, it was Tala who saw the neko-jin. It wasn't like the neko-teen was hidden or anything...

"Bry, stop!" the redhead ordered, and per instinct, the emerald stomped the brake and stopped the car. Enrique immediately unbuckled the seat belt and jumped out of the car, only to land on all four and welcoming his lunch once more. The wolf stood up and headed out too, but realized he had left his crutch by the place he had got into the car, and he growled angrily when he was unable to go any further than leaning up towards the dark-green car bonnet. Mystel also got out of the car and leaned towards it, but he, unlike the redhead, was simply too dizzy to trust his own feet.

Bryan was the last to go out, and he let a hand go through his now long, gray hair as he gave the redhead a falsely questioning look. Being a former master of presenting expressions he didn't feel, the falseness didn't get picked up by anyone. "Why did you tell me to-?" he began, but Enrique was back on his feet, looking furious.

"_Why_! _Why_ do you only listen when _he_ tells you to stop?" he screamed, wiping the sick away from the corner of his lips. "Ah, maledetto (cursed)! Io vi odio tutti (I hate you all)! Non potrò mai fiducia di nuovo, Tala (I will never trust you again, Tala!)" The noble looked so angry it would surprise no-one if he actually jumped forward and hit the redhead. But Italian is a great language to yell at people in, and he continued to do so, not caring that Bryan and Mystel stared.

"English, please," Mystel interrupted when Enrique was forced to stop his stream of words and breathe in. There was amusement in his voice, and he pushed himself off the car to eye the redhead, whom was still growling at the lack of support, his eyes fixed on something not so far from them. "So, Tala, why did you ruin the fun?" The words got him a furious glare from the Italian, but it seemed the athlete still had too much fun to care.

Bryan slid his hands down into his pockets as he knew the answer. "I think I found Lee..." The redhead's words seemed to flow through the air around them, and the meaning of it was sinking in for the two as they followed the gaze of the blue pools. A body, about 65 feet behind them, lying on the sidewalk. The Italian forgot his anger, and he and Mystel were off in that direction when they realized Tala was right.

"You want help?" the emerald asked his captain, since it was pretty obvious he was unable to get over there. Truth to be told, he hoped to get a no, since there still was blood under his nails. And for that reason, he sighed mentally in relief when the redhead shook his head to no.

From over by Lee, Mystel looked up at the two Blitzkrieg-Boys. "He's all beaten up. It's as if an animal was here and attacked him, though there is no bitemarks..." He looked utterly shocked as Enrique squatted down and touched the figure. The Italian looked up and said something to the other, and the athlete took his hands to his mouth. After a while, he took them down again, looking at the two so far away with wide eyes. "He's barely breathing..."

As if someone told him to do so, Bryan and Tala both stepped into the car and backed over towards them, Bryan making sure they didn't get to view his nails. It was easy to get the blood off the skin, and with the many houses, it was easy to find new clothes. But nails just wanted to keep sticking around...

The two blonds got the neko inside the car, blood seeping down on the seats of the perfect car from the open wounds. He was unconscious, and they were nearly unable to see the chest move up and down. But as Bryan looked up in the rear mirror and saw the bloody, barely alive body, rapture drew to his mind, and the emerald turned his head so that none of the concerned teens in the car saw the wide smile or the wild look in his eyes as he forced his breathing to keep normal.

Maniac-driving gave Bryan a kick that only one thing topped.

* * *

So, I'm pretty stressed cause I'm supposed to be packing. Don't hate Bryan, he know not what he do.

Anyway, I don't have time, not even really time too look my mistakes through, so I'll just leave you now ^^ Sorry is the spelling, grammar and whatever is crap, cause I really have no time.

As said, sorry, really, really sorry, but I won't be sending a new chapter for a pretty long while.

Enjoy in joy ^^


	18. Fly to find

Right, so after a hundred years of goneness, I'm back with the next chapter! I hope none of my readers are gone because of this, and I hope nearly as much that other readers have come. I have never believed I would become big or one of the really good authors here, but I would always be happy if more people began reading.

Warning: I'm tired of telling you about my warnings, so I won't ^^

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you will recognize, unless you know someone with the same name as an OC of mine and recognize it. Then, the OC is still mine, MUAHAHAH! (That laugh was totally unnecessary...)

Reviews:

Gud: Sorry, I'm not answering you ;)

(Sidenote: I tried to upload this on my birthday, but unfortunately, the school's internet decided to give up and die for the day. This is the day after my birthday, but what I wanted to say is that the only reason I have finished this now is because I had birthday, else it would have been finished a month or more from now. But here, my opposite-birthday-present to you is here!)

And now I go on to the thing we all have waited for! The big thing that I have hidden from you so long! … The CAKE! *Holds up a bunch of muffins* … What, not what you wanted... ? Alright, then I'll just give you the chapter instead... I'm not good at cooking anyway, they probably don't taste that good... Might be poisonous...

* * *

Fly to find

* * *

_Ian..._

The word in his thoughts was all needed for the nothingness to know what he wanted to see, and a scene began growing. It was the dormitory again, and it seemed they had switched places after they had gotten friends... Or Tala may just be sitting on the empty bed beside Kai's with his back turned to the other children. From their looks, it was clear he still was the most hated kid in the hell-hole, but from the last scene, something had changed.

The redhead was... smiling. His eyes weren't cold anymore, though still filled with ice, a fire was breathing close to and melting everything. Also Spencer had changed, getting a friend that did not just sit in silence, hiding his eyes behind shale bangs. He was sitting on Kai's bed, the small Kai curled up away from the two and leaning against the wall, and the blond leaned over and whispered something that made Tala shake from trying to hide his laughter.

But something that hadn't changed seemed to be Kai. Though smiling at Spencer's silent words, it was merely a tugging in the corners of his lips. He was keeping his distance from the group, probably because of the lesson he had learned when he had watched his former friend, the blond, kill the only ones he had had left – the cat and her kittens. But he had gotten a snowy-white scarf and taken it around his neck for reasons unknown.

The two others didn't seem to care much. Even if he wasn't as much part of them as he should be, he still said a few words every now and then. They were talking about a match they had earlier that day when training, and the slate boy just filled in with details the other two had lost. But they were, at least, together. Even if one refused to evolve.

Just as Spencer was about to tell another hushed joke about something, he froze and stared as Boris walked into the dormitory. The two others followed his eyes with theirs, and Tala immediately got the cold back in his eyes. But the small, sadistic smile on his lips was true, as he stepped out of the bed and walked towards the man.

Kai, on the other hand, had a look of hate in behind his hair. He was the only one. The rest looked upon Boris with admiration, even Spencer. How they had gone from hating the man for a few scenes back to loving him now, that was

a mystery. But the development hadn't reached the slate boy, and he just glared at the man.

"For what reason have you come to meet us, sir?" Tala asked, a smile on his cold face... But the smile fell when he saw another figure beside Boris, a very small figure. So small no-one had noticed him at first. "What is he doing here, sir?" The redhead was sneering, his eyes narrowed as he recognized the boy that had caused him trouble two-three years back. "He can't be even old enough to be out of the cells yet!"

"He's five, so yes, you are right about that," Boris said, smiling. "But he's good. Very good. Ian!" The small boy straightened up and had a soldier-attitude so real he surpassed the 'soldiers' in this room. Though all of them had been there longer than the boy, most had slight trouble following the orders and act like soldiers... Looked like the kid didn't have that problem.

"Yes, sir?" he asked, and the redhead glared at him, as if fearing he was trying to take his spot as Boris' favorite.

"You belong to Tala's group." The redhead growled while the purple-haired boy allowed himself a brief glance to the side before staring straight forward again. Not even Tala would have done so if Boris had introduced him to someone. He would have turned the whole head and not look back to the invisible spot in front of himself again.

"Yes, sir?"

"Tala is your leader, and Kai is second in command. I order you to follow their orders, no matter what the orders are, do you understand?" Again, the purple-haired boy's crimson eyes looked around the room, searching for his second in command. Finding the slate on the bed, he once again turned to look at the invisible spot at his front.

"Yes sir."

"Find a bed and get ready to sleep. Also the rest of you, go to sleep immediately!" The man turned his head towards everyone of his elite-kids, before he turned around and left. Immediately when Boris was out of sight, the tiny, small boy relaxed and looked around. Five? He looked like a three-year-old, and that was something everyone noticed.

"Why do we get a baby in our room?" one of the others asked. "I already have enough in that one!" He nodded towards Kai, whom until then had been the youngest. He didn't react to their words, but did as told and was getting ready for sleeping. The slate had never cared for others opinions about him. And he wasn't the worst in the room.

"I'm no baby," Ian answered, threw everything he had in his hand – meaning his blankets – on to the floor and jumped. In seconds, they were on the floor with the smaller on top, and he was looking more like an animal than anything. No-one would be surprised if he bit for the throat, and it took nearly a minute before anyone reacted. Then, when the five-year-old stood up and jumped the older one directly in the face with both legs, and the older boy's teammate reacted as Tala began laughing in joy of the punishment.

Before Ian could get to go it once more, he was taken by the arms and away from his prey, though he managed to kick him between the legs. Then, the little guy turned the head to one of the newcomers and sunk his teeth into his flesh. When the boy threw him away, he used the force to get over and get both legs around the opponents waist and used the free hand to push upward to under his chin. A finger up between his jaw-bone and the neck, and the boy fell to the floor, unconscious.

Free from his opponents, the tiny boy turned to the one he had bitten and attacked, totally unprovoked since the older was backing away. But before Ian's first victim could get all the way back to his feet and try to help his friend despite his squashed face, and before the bitten boy realized he was the next on the list, Spencer moved. Though never taking action and never being brave, he stepped in between the five-year-old and his new opponent and took the arms around him in an extremely awkward and tight hug.

"What the-" the boy said as he froze in the embrace, and he stared over the blond's shoulder with wide eyes. It was first when the big nine-year-old threw him over his shoulder like a sack that he began squirming and fighting again, attempting to cause as much pain and agony to the boy in front of him as possible, but failing to do any damage. He was in the wrong position, and couldn't do anything but watch while Spencer bent down and took his blankets.

He was thrown on the bed Tala had preoccupied earlier, and the blond stood over him with arms crossed and without speaking. The boy rolled over and stared into the giant's eyes, but he didn't know what to do. The blond wasn't hostile, which meant he couldn't just attack, as he would normally do. The two watched each the others every move until Tala came and ruined it all, making everybody jump as the sudden silence got broken.

"At least you haven't lost your energy! If you were boring like Kai, I would kick you out of the group immediately!" the redhead said. He stood beside Spencer and stared down at the kid, and Ian reacted by pursing his lip stubbornly. He now was sure that Tala remembered their last meeting. But behind them, Kai snorted in amusement, and Tala's face reddened slightly in anger. "Well, at least his energy can be used to my advantage this time!"

Once again, Kai snorted with new amusement, and Tala turned to him and began grumbling words. Soon, the redhead had yelled at the slate enough for the younger to react, and they began arguing with Spencer as an insecure watcher, trying to separate the two. All the while, a smile broadened on Ian's face, and he soon began chuckling along with some of the neighboring boys. After a while, their argument got too ridiculous. "At least I won't get bored here."

His three new teammates glared at him, all of them offended by his words. Then, after having thought the situation through, the blond began chuckling slightly. Tala followed soon, with an actual laugh, giving the two permission to laugh out loud, and all of the team were together, having a good time that Boris probably wouldn't be happy with.

All except for Kai, who was staring at them with no humor on his face. Instead, he was mumbling to himself.

_The violet eyes of the older form of the Hiwatari shifted between the torn up group. He didn't fit in. The small, slate boy didn't fit in, though filling some kind of role of the group... And there was a reason. Though sure he would be lead back to the incident with the kittens, or another cruelty on Boris' part to get him separated from the rest of the world, he decided to try and look for it. Just try to see if it was because of his problems with bonds._

_He didn't even have to find the right sentence. His thoughts already had made a new scene begin to grow, and it evolved to be loo_king at a test-room. The other boys, and Kai, were standing up close to a window, looking out on whatever was on the other side. Their noses were pressed up against the glass, and for once, the violet eyes of the youngest Hiwatari were freed from the slate bangs and shining with excitement.

A loud bang made all the staring eyes widen. Behind the glass, smoke stood up as a lone post. Under it, a black blade was spinning. And it was that little beyblade that caused the tension and excitement Boris didn't seem to want to destroy. Instead, the man stood smirking beside his students, following their every move.

It didn't take long before the blade was stopped, and the boys sighed, disappointed. This might be the only big thing ever happening, aside from punishment or extra portions of food. "That, my young friends, is Black Dranzer. Our own, created bit beast. One of you might get to control this bitbeast – but then you have to behave. And show, that you deserve to get the chance." The boys stared up at him with new respect, the one that had been showing in the last scene. But Boris didn't look at the other kids. He stared directly at the small, slate boy.

And the Hiwatari stared back, seeing the challenge to behave and not wanting to take the hint.

"Everyone of you have the chance. You _just have to behave_." No-one seemed to notice the exchange between the boy and the older man, too caught up in the excitement from hearing the opportunity to get power. But it was more than obvious that the wielder of the dark bitbeast already had been chosen, but just had to show if he was trustworthy. And that they would use the time until he had proven his loyalty to them to control the rest of the boys.

Kai had always been a smart kid. And that he knew Black Dranzer was _his_ at the same time that there was a risk somebody else really got a go with the black bitbeast. And Boris didn't make it better.

"You are all my elite," he continued, looking at the boys gathered around him, all of them except one looking at him like he was their father and protector as they had when they were their smallest. "For that reason, you have been chosen to get a bitbeast." All the kids gasped, and even small Kai had to swallow when he heard. A _bitbeast_! "You are the first _group_ of people in this abbey for ages that will be given the chance to control the ancient power. One other boy does already have a falcon. You have probably met him in battle a few times, and seen his power. Your bitbeasts has already been chosen for you. All you have to do is get them to accept you. Tala!"

The redheaded boy took a step forward, his ice-blue eyes glistening with curiosity. "Yes, sir?" he asked, standing up straight. But his eyes had a hard time focusing on the purple-haired man, constantly ending to look at the smoke that still rose from Black Dranzer's destructive force.

Boris just took his hand forward, handing over the bitbeast Tala wouldn't ever want to lose again. "Wolborg. A white ice-wolf. He is our strongest, except Black Dranzer." When the small, chipsized plastic touched the boy's pale skin, a glow grew from it, and for once, the redheaded boy smiled with warmth in Boris' presence.

The other boy's got their bits, too, until only Kai was left, and the slate kid was beginning to look rather terrified. The question 'what if he won't let me get a bitbeast?' was obvious on his face, and the boy knew it. For that reason, he was looking from behind his bangs, trying to hide his expressions. He didn't want to look vulnerable.

But Boris could see it, and it was obvious it gave him a lot of pleasure. Tormenting the kid was a favorite pastime thing to him. "And Kai," he stated, finally, making the boy look up with a mixture of hate and hope twisted in his too-young face, "I have one for you. She is a phoenix, the high and mighty mythical creature you may know." The slate boy snorted, angry that Boris made him look stupid. "She has been passed to you from generation to generation in the Hiwatari-family for nearly a thousand years. Her last carrier was your father." The boy winced and looked away. "_Unfortunately_, he was unable to be here for your fifth birthday and give her to you. So, now, I will hand her, Dranzer, over as Susumu's substitute." Boris let his hand reach out in front of him, over towards the kid.

Kai was over in few steps and let her fall down in his hand. When she touched his skin, a faint glow surrounded his hand, and it was so mighty and beautiful and _strong_ that even Boris' eyes dilated in surprise, a_nd even in his current state, the teenage-Kai could feel it. The o_nly one not touched by their united strength, which surpassed even Wolborg's and maybe Black Dranzer's, was...

Suddenly, the red-and-blue chip fell to the floor with a nasty ringing, as if it was metal that had hit metal or stone against stone. The violet eyes of the slate-banged kid were furious, and the sound of the plastic hitting the floor nearly sent surprise and agony into the faces of everyone else in the room. Even Boris had been pulled into the spell.

"_Boris_." His voice was icy as Kai continued to glare, his influence filling the room with fear even though he was the youngest of them all. "Why not just give me Black Dranzer? It's too obvious that destiny is for me to get it. You know it too. Just give it to me now and stop acting like it is possible for all of them to get Black Dranzer, or act like I'm supposed to have _Dranzer_. I only have one bitbeast, and it is _not_ that." He nodded down to the bitbeast on the floor. When silence wasn't broken, he turned on his heel and stomped away to wherever he was going, stopping for a second in the door. "See you in the dormitory."

And then, he was gone, leaving his most loyal bitbeast like trash on the street.

* * *

The water in the river in Paris was flowing peacefully, the silence of the city ghostly and hollow. Yet, it didn't scare the gray-haired teen, who was sitting on the front of his newly found BMW and looking at things he had just recently realized was beautiful. Tala said it wasn't nice to beat up people, even though no-one knew who the sinner was. For that reason, Bryan hadn't been hitting anyone for a long time. It... just itched in his fingers.

The lion had woken half a day after he was found, but was too confused and swollen to speak clearly. When that problem was done and over with two days later, he told he had been roaming the street, alone, looking for food stored in cans that was still fresh. Suddenly, he saw a shadow behind him, but before he was able to find out what – or who – it was, he smacked against the wall of the nearest building. From that point, he only remembered pain and a dark figure standing over him.

The description didn't point to Bryan, but he was suspected. Along with other wild, hungry animals. It surprised many that the agile and strong neko-jin-warrior had had no chance against whatever had hit him, even if his had been unprepared. Bryan had also been slightly surprised by the lack of fight from his opponent, but it had been fun anyway.

Suddenly, the car moved when weight got divided more equally on the front of the car, and Bryan looked to the side to see the only person wanting to really talk to him. Tala. The redhead smiled, the blue eyes glistening with the normal, excited glow. A mask, hiding the truth because the truth wasn't pretty.

The two of them had tricked a lot of other people into the car, like Enrique and Mystel. They had had fun together, something that was impossible before. The only ones they had been unable to get into the car was Brooklyn, but that was no surprise since the citrine probably knew what they were doing. Everyone had about their own reaction to the speed and insane turns, and Mystel's was the most calm.

"I'm going away," the wolf suddenly began, but the emerald didn't say anything. He knew the redhead would continue, nearly bouncing up and down on the beautiful, green car. "You said Ian is in Egypt, right? And he might be dead, but since he is our little, stubborn Ian, he is most likely living in a cave somewhere." A small smile broadened on the face of the bigger teen. That was as true as it gets. "But what I'm saying is that I'm flying to Egypt in a chopper with Mystel and Falak, and you are staying here and doing Falak's job as the leader of the hunters."

"But I have to come with you." The emerald had hidden every hint of emotion from his voice, and the face got blank at that piece of information. The redhead shook his head.

"I want you to come with me, I promise you that," he said, and the emerald lifted an eyebrow. He didn't look convinced at all. "The problem is that I trust none of the people I leave behind. They trust the adults too much, and the adult, despite being warriors, knows nothing about warfare. They can survive on nothing, but we can that too. But since they are adults, and our people is used to do what the adults or older people tell them in dire situations, stupid things can happen when I'm not here. That's why I let you stay here, instead of coming with me."

The emerald didn't say anything at first, just stared down in the dirty water, something inside him tearing him up slowly. Slowly, he breathed in and looked up again, resisting the urge to attack and kill whatever made him feel a bad feeling he did not recognize. "You are sure it's not just because I'm in your way, and you get rid of me like this? Because I'm not in control anymore, you want to dumb me like trash?" His voice was icy. That was something new.

The blue pools widened in surprise, not understanding how the thoughts had led his friend so far off. "No... No, Bryan, it's nothing like that. You are taking my role until I come back, you make sure the right decisions is chosen. I know people aren't... happy about you, but as long as you keep cool and just..." He tapped the dark-green car they were sitting on. "... take a spin every time you want to kill someone, I believe you can change their opinion."

Silence grew between them, and the tearing feeling continued to try and rip the emerald apart. They stared out at the dead city, and Bryan tried to imagine the street of Moscow. It had been snowy when they had been taken away, but the Russian summer could be hot. That meant the bodies there probably still was rotting, and that wild, hungry animals was roaming the street, eating of the meat of humans.

Of course, that was only a scenario of his mind, and he actually liked that he was able to make it. It required imagination, and that he was even able to imagine the smell of his homecity only made it even more cool.

But the redhead tore him out of the gloomy, yet amusing, thoughts by standing up from the car and beginning to walk away, thinking they didn't have any more to talk about. "I'm going for Bryan now. You explain to the adults, they would probably try to stop me for wanting to take a single boy of my own friends. Mystel and Falak have already understood everything, so... See ya later." He smiled brightly to the emerald, then continued walking away.

"What about Xiu?"

The redhead froze, stopping his walk. He had been swarming around that girl for a long time now, not using her, but slowly convincing her that she wanted him without necessarily really wanting him. It's not nice to manipulate, but you can't blame them for not believing in the natural love.

"What about her?"

"Just thought she might be coming with you."

Another silence, this one actually uncomfortable, and Bryan got back to trying to imagine things happening. This time, though, he could actually use it for something. Use it to imagine the face of his redheaded captain, right at this moment, since nothing was told by the back or the way the older was standing. For some reason, some very weird reason he didn't understand, that picture of the others face showed deep hurt and sadness.

But when the redhead turned around, it was a smile, the normally cheery one, that was showing. "Oh, she's not worth me. I deserve better than her, you know." With that, he turned around and continued walking, this time with longer and faster strides, soon disappearing totally from sight.

The emerald didn't move. He didn't see a reason for him to move, and continued watching the river until the sound of a helicopter's slicing blades sounded from a few streets away. The green eyes shot up as the dark shadow rose from over the buildings, turned around slowly and then headed towards southeast. Deciding faster than thought, Bryan stood up and got into the car, speeding down towards the place where the chopper had risen from the city.

As he had thought, many had been nearing the place when they heard the machine start. When he found the place that they all had found together by, he stopped the car and stepped out. As the adults and teens turned around to him, he realized Tala hadn't told him his reasons to go for Ian. That was when he realized he didn't need an explanation.

"Tala, Mystel and Falak was in... What is Tala doing?" It was Rei, and he looked confused and slightly annoyed with the situation.

"And you immediately assume that he is the one doing all this?" Bryan asked, his tone monotone and bored as he leaned towards the car. "But yeah, he is. He's on his way to Egypt, and as you may know, those two are Egyptians, so he decided to ask them to come with him. We're more used to the Russian weather, you know." The emerald decided he didn't want to control the conversation, since he would never have problems with controlling the situation.

"And for what reason has he decided to go to the desert?" one of the adults questioned, crossing his arms as he tried to get the teen in front of him to listen and act as he wanted. Knowing Bryan, he knew it would be some hard and problematic job, so he showed a face that didn't tolerate any resistance from the teen.

He had just chosen the wrong one. Cause Bryan didn't care and wouldn't ever care about what other people felt like or wanted. "He's going for Ian. The kid is in Egypt. If he's still alive, that is."

"Ian...?" The adult speaking had no idea who the small, bignosed kid was, and the emerald didn't look like he was going to help the least. The neko-jin was alone in the matter of understanding who was being spoken about...

If it hadn't been for the teens, who all had knowledge and held fascination in the beyblading world. "I thought he wasn't with you anymore?" When the adult still looked confused, the speaking person, Tyson, turned to him, and he was actually very serious. He had lost his innocent carelessness for some time ago, though it had been back momentarily at Rei's arrival. "Ian was a member of Tala's and Bryan's team when they were called the Demolition Boys and were under Boris' control..."

"Ian never left us. He merely left beyblading. When we decided to try and get our title back as world champions, he agreed to go back to blading, but when Kai came into the picture, he said it didn't mean anything to him if we won anyway, and he left the team again. But we still lived together back in Russia."

"So Tala is going to find a friend of yours?" The neko sounded mad, and when he received a nod from the emerald, he clenched his fist and gritted the pointed teeth. "And what would happen if every one of us chose to go for our friends of personal interests instead of keeping together in the group?"

"Everything would fall apart."

"And knowing Tala, I assume he's aware of this?"

"More than aware of it."

"Mind telling me, then, why did he choose to break this unwritten rule that he is so aware of?"

"Because we need Ian."

"How?"

The emerald shrugged.

"He's a better soldier than any of us will ever be. And when he is better than any now, how do you think he'll be when he gets older? We don't know if we are going to have to wait to do anything for five-ten years."

"You mean that- Wait, how old is he?"

"He's fourteen at the moment."

The face of the neko stiffened even more, while Bryan seemed untouched by the conversation. "So you tell me Tala went away to find a kid, so we can have a chance of a good soldier in the future?"

Bryan lazily shook his head no. "Ian is a natural when it comes to being a soldier. He doesn't need five-ten years to be the best soldier or next-best strategist. He would simply become scary in these five-ten years." The emerald felt a smile tug in the corners of his lips, but he didn't want to look too human. It was better if they were at some distance, so he decided it was time to disappear. "I'm going now. I'm bored." He pushed himself from the side of the car and opened the door.

"Bryan...?" That voice and that hesitation. It could only be one person, and Bryan seated himself while his head turned towards the neko-girl. Her golden eyes seemed insecure and nearly scared, and she bit her lower lip with a pointed teeth. When he turned his head, she looked away, trying to find confidence. "May I... come with you?"

Once again, Bryan had to fight off a smile, and since he wasn't used to smiles, it was only by luck it didn't show. But it was funny. "Are you going in to this car with me behind the steering wheel freely?" He ignored the comments he heard from the adult neko outside the car or the mumblings from the others, knowing they might anger him. He wanted to do as Tala had said and stay calm instead of loosing himself again.

"Well... yeah. I wanted to talk to you... about something." She wanted to get permission from him, and that was something quite confusing. But when he nodded, she fastly jumped over the car and, before the nekos could stop her as they wanted, got into the car. Bryan got the hint and sped up immediately, even before she got the car closed, and they stood on two wheels when he he turned around the corner.

After that, Bryan slowed down to near-allowed speed, still too fast for the law, but since there was no-one on the street, it couldn't be that bad. He turned he head and looked at her for a moment, before again turning his attention to the road in his front. "What is it about?" He didn't have to ask the question. He already knew the answer.

"Tala... I thought... He told me he had plans to get Ian back, I think Ian meant a lot to him... But it's just that he promised me I could come with him, and now he's gone..." From the corner of his eye, Bryan caught the tear glistening in her eyes. It made him feel something, and it pained him... He just didn't know what it was. If Tala had been there, he could have explained everything.

But though not knowing what it was, he knew what he was supposed to say, as if the hand of a God controlled his thoughts and actions. "Tala... is a troubled guy. You may not see it, but he is. Ian was the small one in the group. I don't know anything about how they ended up like that, the other three, but they were close. Even though Tala still was a bitch and Spencer still was vulnerable, and Kai hadn't left yet when they had gotten close, the three of them bounded deeply. That Ian may not be alive, or is suffering in the desert, is hurting Tala more than he will admit, and though I know nothing about feelings, I know my captain. He is extremely responsible, and when one of his friends or teammates is in trouble, he react."

"But why didn't he take me...?"

"Because he is a troubled guy," Bryan repeated, cutting her off. "Bad things happened in the abbey. Bad things that he hasn't ever gotten out with. I know how everyone ended there, except Tala. I know why they were as they were, except Tala. Spencer was sold to the Abbey by his parents. Unwanted. So he was quiet and scared and silent. Ian was left on the street when he was two when his mother was robbed and killed by accident when the robber stabbed her. Kai was thrown in when his father left and his mother agreed on taking him to the abbey. Losing both parents, one physically and one mentally, and finding out about his sister's apparent dead closed him off from the world, and he still hasn't recovered. I know the story of every child in the abbey, except Tala."

"It still has nothing to do with why he didn't take me... does it?" Her mind were working hard, and something kept Bryan from answering her question. Suddenly, her eyes widened slightly, as some kind of realization shot through her. "From what others have told me about him... He did bad things. As a Demolition Boy, he was with Boris... If he didn't tell you anything, then he... Did he do more bad things than just... being with Boris?"

The green-eyed stared at the street and turned a corner so they were driving at the border of a park. Xiu was extremely calm for driving with him, or just too concentrated on her false crush's problems. "Tala has had a personality that you can't even imagine. Some call him a demon for the competitive mood he sometimes show. But truth is that it has nothing to do with his true demon personality. He has hurt many people, and treated many badly."

"He regrets it..." It was only a whisper, and Bryan wasn't sure he even caught it right. He had heard about regret, he knew how it looked and sounded, but he didn't know for sure what it felt like. He looked over at her and opened his mouth, first about to ask her what regret felt like and meant, but changing it in the last second.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing... Nothing at all. I have just seen moments where he freezes in the middle of a conversation, only to cover up the expressions he gets with a new mood. But he... I think I came to a conclusion without evidence."

Bryan nodded at her words, and stopped outside the park. Looking at her from the corner of his eye, he felt that urge he had promised Tala to control without Tala even knowing the agreement. He gripped the steering-wheel tighter, a deep growl coming from his throat. "Out."

She turned to watch him, surprised and scared by his change of mood. He looked threatening without looking angry, like a vampire waiting to suck out the blood, or the insane surgeon feeling happiness by cutting human flesh. A happy kind of threat. "Wha-" she began, but Bryan's one foot came up from the pedals and kicked her up against the door.

"Get out," he repeated, and by the rapture, excitement and adrenaline running through his body, he realized it might not be clever to use violence on her if he wanted to keep himself calm and clear.

She fumbled with the door before getting it opened, and then turned again to stare at him without closing the door, in some way not wanting to leave him while he looked to be in pain, or whatever it was he felt. She couldn't quite point it out, what it was he was feeling or doing.

He gave her one last look, and one last sentence before he sped up and drove away, letting the wind and speed close her still open car. "Don't get lonely in his absence," he advised, "he might not want you when he gets back. When he had gotten around many corners and over a bridge to the other side of the city of Paris, he stopped, making marks on the road from the wheels. The pain of Tala's departure came back for a moment, and after the name had been said, he realized what it was. He had known it for so long.

He found pen and paper and wrote a small note to calm himself slightly:

_I advised the upcoming girlfriend of my friend's about loneliness while only wanting to kill her or beat her up, like I did with her race-mate. I now realized it's me, who is lonely, by the absence of this friend. Loneliness is a feeling I never thought I would forget the symptoms of, and here I have it again, raging in my body like it did when I was five.

* * *

_

_The next step of the journey was easy to find. Getting over the pain of his younger part's insolence and stupidity concerning his beloved bitbeast, Kai fought himself to continue and demand to see this next step. How did I get out of there? The scene growing was the exact same training-room as the one they had gotten friends it. In that ro_om, the group would get shattered all over again.

The four of them were playing against four others. The punishment of losing appeared to be getting Bryan's practice-doll, the gray-haired, green-eyed boy standing by the walls of the room and watching them with lack of interest in his nonefeeling eyes and nonefeeling mind. He seemed to be about nine, along with Tala.

The group were leading, obviously. Tala and Kai were circling the outer part of the stadium, one circling clockwise, the other counter-clockwise. In the middle of the stadium, circling each other, Spencer and Ian were watching the other's back.

In the middle of the two circles the group had made, the enemy were, and they had too little space to make a formation and use their teamwork. "Cross-attack!" Tala ordered, and when Kai and Tala were in each side of the stadium, they turned and came towards their two teammates in the middle. At the same time, those two came towards each of their own teammate, Spencer towards Kai, Ian towards Tala. And in between both pairs, an enemy was.

They clashed, Spencer and Kai, Tala and Ian, with the enemy between each pair. Then, at the same time, they move clockwise around each other, getting past the enemy without being trouble for each other, and finally, Ian and Spencer made each their own outer circle while Tala and Kai were circling like the other two had before. Two enemy blades were lying dead on the ground, Boris' people already taking the losers away.

The redhead and the slate boy stood side by side, an invisible connection coming between them. They only had a brief moment of eye contact, but it was enough. They parted, without any sign to their team or opponents. They hit the enemy from each side, forcing the blades of the two opponents together. They parted again, only to find each other, and looking nearly identical, they threw the two out of the stadium. It had happened in the matter of seconds, and then the two of them had stopped the game.

They turned to Boris, who was walking towards them with a stern expression. "Good work, as I always expect from you." He received a smile from them, some of them true, some of them false. And then there was Kai, who didn't even try smiling. "Soon, you might even get a go with Black Dranzer."

"I'm always waiting, sir, for when you decide to let me have the bitbeast," Tala said, a wicked smile over his slightly frowning face. "But now, I want to talk to my team, so shoo." The man couldn't help snorting in anger. The redhead was always daring, crossing the lines to see how far he could go. Or maybe just for his own pleasure.

"I don't want that tone from you, Tala," he said, gritting his teeth in anger. The reaction from the redhead was the same reaction you could expect from the owner of a dog. He took his hands up and made the shooing movement, getting Boris even more angry. That's what you get for making him your favorite. But Boris decided to be nice.

"We have an appointment together for later, Tala," he said, before turning around and leaving. The group shared a look, only one, the youngest and most energetic, bold enough to voice their question.

"What do you think he wants?"

The wolf grinned and padded his beyblade, the warm plastic of his bitbeast bringing him comfort and security. "He'll probably give me Black Dranzer and see if I'm able to control it," he answered reassuringly, and he didn't see the winch coming from the slate boy at the border of the group. "Anyway, if we are together, we can't lose to anyone, and that's good. But our individual skills aren't that great, so... Hey, Kai, where are you going?"

The slate boy had been moving away from them, and he slowly turned his head to watch them one last time. "Leaving. Just don't think I want to see Bryan smash another group of people, and you people are always boring and annoying." With that, the boy turned away again and left through the door, too fast for the remnants of the group, or anyone else, to stop him, the white scarf standing behind him like a f.

"Why does he have to be like that?" Tala grumbled as they stared after him, the mood ruined by the younger Kai's antisocial acts. There was hate in the redhead's eyes, along with other, more kind things. Concern as one of them, but he was trying hide it, no wanting to be looked upon as weak.

"If he wants to be antisocial, just leave him be. It's him who misses out on all the fun," Ian said, the smallest of them trying to look and sound like he was exactly like them, as mature and intelligent.

"My problem is that he always do it," the wolf answered, before turning around and looked towards the gray-haired boy at the other end of the room. He was already battling their former opponents, and their blood was spilled across the floor from his invisible attacks. The redhead turned away fast, and looked at his team. "Why is he like that?"

"He has always been like that," Spencer said, the first time he talked in the whole scene. "Kai hasn't changed since I met him the first time... And I have a feeling that he will always be distant to those around him. He will make sure he is surviving and pick friends after that, though friends is too big a word." The silent blond's wo_rds stung, as Kai knew this ten-year-old boy was so right. He had followed the younger one of himself with his gaze while his former team spoke, but now, the boy was out of sight. _

_The team continued to speak, but if this really was his flee from the Abbey, Kai was with the wrong people. One last look at the three boys he knew so well now, Kai demanded himself on to the young slate boy, and the scene dematerialized only to materialize to a hallway that he was knowing so well. It was a hal_l from the Abbey.

The sound of footsteps rung through the hall, from stonewall to stonewall. The scene looked familiar, so familia_r that Kai felt he had seen it before. But the scene that he remembered was an older model of the teen running through the dark place, not a eigh_t-year-old turning the many corners and running past the cameras, getting seen but trying to be fast enough not to get stopped.

Black, gun-like arms turned towards him. In the last second, the boy jumped to the side and rolled away and back to his feet, yelping with surprise. Blue blades with no human mind behind them tried to reach him, and he drew his own blade. Dranzer was thrown to life by the slightly terrified boy, not as powerful as she should be, but she still cut through the enemy-blades like butter. Immediately when the last blade was dead, he began running again.

The trip went like that most of the way, trying to stop him with the security-blades. Boris knew what he was doing and wanted him stopped, but couldn't do it in a better way. And since Kai, who was looked down upon by the whole abbey system cause he wasn't as good as he was supposed to in Voltaire's mind, surprisingly enough was able to come past everything they set up, there was two conclusions. Either he had hid his true potential, or he was working best alone.

It took him about twenty minutes of running before he came to the room where he had gotten his not-so-beloved bitbeast. And here, a guard stood waiting, trying to stop him. Unfortunately for him, he was alone, and the boy had a determination that shined out of his face like a demon. Or maybe only like a black phoenix.

Taking Dranzer out again, he took the blade up and aimed at the guard, who was running towards him, hoping to use his size to tackle and stop the boy. The blade cut through the air and connected to the poor man's shoulder, and his whole body snapped back with a load crack. Kai didn't stop to look for the injury he might have conjured. He jumped over the guy with the red phoenix by his side and through the open door.

The room hadn't changed a bit, and the boy stood and looked around at the big window and dark computers, panting and looking bemused. It looked like he didn't have a plan for what to do now, and he even turned his head back towards the door, probably wondering if he should go back. It caused a shake to his head, showing his decision to find something to do without giving up, and the fuel to his running and defying all rules came in his simple words.

"No, can't go back." Merely a whisper, while he still stood and looked around to find something useable. "Tala may not get _my_ bitbeast."

Dranzer was still spinning beside him, and when he saw her, he seemed to decide. With his hand, he guided the blade up and through the window, and it cracked in a thousand pieces. The blade immediately was out of sight, but it didn't seem to bother the boy, and he jumped right through the window too, the white scarf flaring behind him like a flag.

Getting to his feet again, his eyes found the black blade in the launching-machine, and it took not even five seconds for him to get over to it. Taking it down, he put it in his own launcher, and after caressing it for a second, he gripped the launcher and fired.

All the boy's muscles tensed. It was the feeli_ng of flying that Kai would never forget, flying and be free... and powerful. But he remembered this scene, more or less. From when the he had jumped through the broken window till now, where t_he blade was in control at first. Then, when the muscles of the slate boy untensed again, hell broke loose a_nd Kai could no longer remember what had happened._

The blade began zigzagging, it hit a pole and flew straight into the wall, where it created an explosion of light. Everything in the room was white with the light... then, the whole building shivered, and a deafening sound made the already terrified boy scream. Then, the white disappeared, and there was a glimpse of roof coming down towards them fast... then, there was nothing but blackness.

_The only way Kai knew the boy wasn't dead was that he himself was living. Else, he would have thought the boy had died under the roof. But just as he was beginning to fear that it all was finis_hed, a new light broke through. With red and gold, the rocks was thrown to the side, and the glimpse of the real, beautiful phoenix disappeared beside an unhurt, but unconscious, boy. Then, the dark-blue blade finally gave in and fell to the side.

It took about twenty minutes for the boy to awake, but when he did, it was with a start. With wide eyes, he looked around at the destruction, and realizing it was his cause, he hid his head in his hands, cursing in both Russian and Japanese. Then, he stood up, took Dranzer's blade and sought for Black Dranzer, but the black one was nowhere in sight. Then he began running again, finding his way into the still standing part of the Abbey through the ruins. About a forth of the building had fallen under the pressure of the bitbeast.

When he came to the dormitory, he took all of the things that he owned and made them ready to leave. Then, he began running again, but with the door to freedom in sight, he was stopped by the last one you would want stopping you. It was the emotionless, uncaring, but extremely loyal stone, Bryan, who got a grip in the scarf as the smaller flew past.

The smaller boy ended on the floor, nearly choking from the unkind treatment, but the gray-haired boy did not care. "Boris ordered that no-one is allowed outside the Abbey," he said with that voice and took a step out of the shadow he had been hiding in. The reason you never wanted to be stopped by this one was because it was impossible to change his mind when there was an order behind his action. "Go to the training-room and find your team, so we know who has died in the collapse."

The slate-banged boy got to his feet and looked into the green eyes, nearly begging him to let go. "I... I can't stay... please let me go... I destroyed everything! Grandfather will get angry, I can't meet him again, he'll kill me!" But the gray-haired didn't care for his beg or prayers, only caring for his superiors. It was not feelings you could find in his eyes. It was the computers calculations, since he had ended in a problematic situation, and Boris had said so.

He decided what to do and turned around to drag the boy with him to where he was supposed to be. But Kai was desperate, and he reacted from this act by trying to knock out the bigger one. Two hits to the head, but the other merely reacted by halting to make a even harder drag in the scarf. The eight-year-old got even more desperate, and something glistened from the nine-year-old's belt. A knife.

From one moment to the other, the boy had the knife in his hand and trusted it towards the other's arm. And missed. It hit the scarf and cut through it, but it was enough to get free. The scarf teared, and the little sprinter was off again with the bigger right behind him. But when they came through the door, the older halted, being strictly forbidden from going outside the Abbey without Boris' permission. Kai, on the other hand, didn't stop before the Abbey was out of sight, and even then he was fighting his way through the snow towards the center of the Russian capital.

_Kai was about knowing what happened at this time of his life. He didn't know the details, and didn't really want to, but still wanted to know about what had happened for sure. He remembered this better than he remembered the time in the Abbey, but remembering wasn't always the best thing. For that reason, he was lost as he hanged himself off the boy running through the thick snow. _

_How was he going to watch this? What would be the best way? Hour for hour, day for day, that would take too long. How much should he watch when he got to a new scene? Again, if he chose to see a whole hour every week he lived, it would take too long, too. An hour of every month might be too little... And he didn't have any highlights he could point for, as he had had in the Abbey where he had things he wanted to know._

_While he fought to find the right way, the nothingness came back and the peaceful scene of falling snow disappeared into the darkness of the unconscious mind. Beside him, the green eyes still watched, and he now knew it was Black Dranzer, who was keeping close to him. And Black Dranzer looked so much like her... Whom he had proved he didn't deserve and never did. Even when she protected him, he didn't thank her, and when he got her, he hadn't wanted her._

_He ended up deciding weekly glimpses, after an argument that he couldn't decide whether had taken hours or seconds. How he had ended up with that conclusion, he didn't really know, but it sounded like a good way to do it. And so, he demanded himself one week forward._

A boy was sitting, shivering in the snow in an alley under a cloth not even big enough to cover his whole body. In the background, on the street, people walked past, not even looking his way...

_Second week._

"Are you stealing my bread?" A man in white clothes hold the slate-haired boy up towards the wall with the big, strong hands around his neck, and his head was rotred with anger. The boy, though having a slightly terrified look in his eye, looked calm and cool, despite the bad position he was in at the moment.

"No, sir, I was giving it back to you. Another boy took it." It was impossible to see if it was a lie or the truth, but it seemed the man already had decided what he believed. The bread they were talking about was nothing but a small bun in the hands of the boy, and it was still and hot from the owen damping in the freezing air.

"Liar! I know children like you. Small, insulting, unmannered brats with no respect toward anyone or anything..!"

_Third week._

Kai hid in the smallest shadow he could find. A group of men was yelling to each other, and one voice was easily recognized. Boris was giving orders...

_Fifth week._

The boy was bowing down behind a desk. Outside the bakery, the wind was swirling the flakes of snow around, and there was little sign of humans on the street outside. In a small sack, buns, small cakes, white and dark bread and whatever else he could find was put. Out in the back, the same man in the white clothes as before were getting ready to open his shop, not seeing the boy ripping his bakery of everything eatable...

_Tenth week._

The snow were lying peacefully and cold on the field to the school. On one side of the fence, the kids from the school were playing, and a giant Christmas-tree was shining in all the colors of the rainbow. On the other side of the fence, a slate-haired boy with ragged and dirty clothes was watching them with disgust evident on his face. But at the same time, his hands were clenching the wholes in the wire-fence with longing...

_Sixteenth week._

The same alley as the first time. The boy was sitting, shivering madly, while a strong wind was sweeping through the narrow place, sending cascades of snow down on the small body. The lips were blue, the skin sickly pale, and he was hiding his hand under the destroyed clothes, and beside him, and blue beyblade was spinning, the bitbeast trying to provide him enough heat to keep her master alive...

_Twenty sixth week._

The snow was gone, and a pale sun was warming the streets flaming hot. The boy was running in to a grocery-store, getting ready to steal some more to survive. Soon after, though, he was kicked out by the owner of the store. Only his eight years kept the man from calling the police and sent him to prison, so Kai survived with only a small beating...

_Thirty third week._

The sun was baking down the alley, and the trash in the containers and on the floor had a rotten stench to it. The boy didn't seems to mind it, though, as he was looking through it, hoping to find something to eat and survive on...

_Forty first week._

The heat was unbearable, and the air was filled with waves of hot, rising air. There was no water, and the boy was roaming the streets shadow, seeking for any source of water. He ended by the end of an open sewer, and was desperate enough to bow down and try to drink a bit. He ended up throwing that and his food up instead...

_Fifty eighth week._

The snow had found its place on the streets again, and a light wind was brushing the boy's hair. Again, he was watching the school, but this time, it was three boys beating up another was. Again, disgust was written on his face, and his hand was clenching his beyblade, as if he was wondering if he should stop the boys. Or maybe help them beat the other, 'weak' boy up...

_Sixty fifth week._

The boys in the school were having a snow-fight, but many of the girls didn't want to be a part of it. So instead, they walked by the fence to come away from the flying snow. One of them saw the boy standing by the fence, and she ran over to him. "Hello," she said, not noticing how he shied away from her. "What's your name? How come you are always standing there, watching us? Where do you come from? Wanna play with us? What are you doing on that side of the fence?"

Too many questions in too little time, and he just looked down and took a step back. "Come on, Xandra, he's just a stinking street-kid. You shouldn't talk to such, he'll just make you sick." It was another girl, one who probably was the leader of their group.

But the girl was stubborn. "But he's standing there, looking every day! He's probably nice enough, we just have to give him a chance, right?" Half-way into the sentence, she turned away from him. As soon as she did so, stopped having her eyes on him, he turned around and fled, leaving the girls to themselves...

_Seventy first week._

The boy was hiding in the shadow of a new, snow-covered alley. Boris was on the move again, having realized the boy was still alive. The boy had his hands balled into fists, and the empty expression he had had all the time on the street was more evident than ever. Then, it disappeared, and in it's place, determination was shown. "I won't live this way anymore," he whispered as he curled up in the small corner to keep away from his old tormentor...

_Seventy second week._

The boy was running around stealing from shops again. But this time, he was not taking food, but clothes and shoes...

_Seventy third week._

The boy was, without success, trying to comb his hair. "No use," he mumbled at last, his voice hoarse. "Got to take a shower..."

_Seventy forth week._

The boy was sitting in the snow outside a house, watching the people inside. There was a glint in his eyes, stubborn...

_Seventy fifth week._

Once again, he was sitting, staring at the house while he ate some dry meat and an apple.

_Seventy sixth week._

The same house, but this time, he was moving towards it. He broke the frame of a window with a iron-pole he had found and went into the house. It took a whi_le, but since he had been watching that exact house for two-three weeks, Kai decided to watch and wait for his younger self to come out. After ab_out half an hour, the slate-haired boy crawled out the window again, but now, he had his new clothes and wet hair.

He was looking like every other kid, except being extremely thin, and when he got out in the snow, the only thing telling you it was the same boy was the white scarf around his shoulders, and from the looks of it, it hadn't been washed or replaced.

He went directly to a parking lot at the border of Moscow, and it was full of giant trucks, and waited for the next chauffeur to come out of the station and get ready to drive. "Sorry, sir...?" It was nothing but a whisper, and all his voice was able to bring. The man turned around and looked at the boy, who was fighting hard not to shy away and flee. That was very obvious, but he was too stubborn to stop now. "Sir, where are you going? Are you going out of Russia?"

"Yeah, to Hungary. What-for, kid?" The man crossed his arms over his chest, but he kept smiling slightly.

"May I come with you?"

"Where is your parents, kid?" he said, ignoring the question. The boy just shook his head, and it seemed the man realized his situation. So he nodded. "Come with me," he said and opened the door to the truck. The boy followed slowly, trying to go against newfound instincts to finally get away from Boris and his grandfather.

* * *

Alright, that got kinda long, but since it's long since I sent last chapter, it's... Anyway, I wanted to send this on my birthday, without having time to look it through. Now, I still don't have ANY time at all, so I haven't even read it again, as I normally get to do, so there is probably many, _many _mistakes in this one.

Again, it's going to take some time before next update, so keep interested... and please don't stop reading ^^

Enjoy in joy!


	19. Awakening Death

Alright, back again, with slight inspiration and attempts to keep the story together in my head. So much stuff is happening around me, and you will have to go back to my childhood to find me happier than now. Normally, I would be extremely inspired by this, but my head is so... filled with emotions and thoughts, and so tired, that I can't seem to find the lust to push my keyboard when I finally have time to do so.

Warnings: Have I already said earlier, if you have gotten this far in the story, it shouldn't be necessary to tell.

Disclaimer: Own neither the show or the characters, only the OC's and the story-plot and the computer I write from.

Reviews:

Gud: Once again, I won't answer, cause I see no real reason to xD

phoenix-falling: You have the amazing gift of making my sad, little, gray day! Every time I get a review from you, I'm on the egde of tears, and I as good as never cry at all. You don't just review, you go all the way and comment on every little thought I have put into the story and thinks it over. I feel so honored that anyone wants to use so much time on my little creation. As the first time, I lost every word. I'm speechless of happiness, and I don't care how long it takes you to review. Cause whenever you do... Do you know that little, warm fire that can burn in your chest when you feel overly happy? That one where you can't seem to stop writing? You lights that fire with your written words, and I can't seem to stop writing something for one-three days after I have seen your review. If you made me a review everyday, that fire would make sure I made a chapter for every second week, even with no time to write at all.

My teacher tells me I write as if I'm speaking (and giving me B to C in an assignment, I'm going to kill her -.- ), so I will try to change the way I write a little. But since I'm not English, I can't hear the difference between writing as if speaking and writing as if writing. For that reason, I hope you English people wouldn't mind giving me an example from my writing, where I write as if I speak, and then make it look right, since my brilliant teacher decided not to explain how it is I'm writing wrong.

There is a whole game of chess described in this. I you want, you can follow the whole game if you have a game of chess on your computer. I used chess titans, set on human against human, to make the whole game.

* * *

Awakening Death

* * *

The apartment was silent and dark, the curtains covering the windows. The only streak of light that got all the way into the dusty room was in the creak between the a little too short curtain and the bottom window-frame, and that didn't even get past the windowsill. All in all, peaceful and quiet, and a place where you could keep you thoughts together without unwanted, uncontrollable outer influences like humans and words.

There was a click when a white pawn landed on the chessboard with guidance from a pale hand. A moment later, the same hand moved a black rook forward. Bryan was playing the game with himself, because... he had no reason why, but the books in the apartment were boring and missing facts, and chess was... well, chess. Nothing in the world was better to Bryan than being away from other people and play the game of patterns and thinking that chess was. The only thing really better than that was if the team was with him, so Tala had to get back soon.

But unfortunately, it wasn't the time for him to play this game. Or, that was the thought of destiny or faith.

"Bryan?" It was long time since he last had heard that voice, and for some reason, it sent shivers down his spine, all the way from his hair down to his feet. Slowly, his gaze changed from the board to the door, where light was finding its way into his dark, little, lonely home. The silhouette of a girl was standing there, breaking the light. The girl, who had claimed she loved him enough to fight forever for him, and the one he hadn't seen for so long.

There only was one answer to her word and actions, and so, he said it. "What?" She moved closer, but decided to stop before she got too close and then went to the curtains. The pale rays of the sun lighted the room, showing the small pieces of dust in the sun that the two teenage-boys normally living there were oblivious to. Tala and Bryan didn't care much for cleanness.

He stared at her as she continued to move, not letting her out of sight for a single second. She saw his stare, but was fast to look away. But of course, her eyes was drawn back to his dead stare, and they looked each other into the eyes. He still wanted the answer to his question. And she knew that. "I just wanted to speak with you," she said, once again forcing her eyes from his. His gaze fell too, and another chess piece moved on the chessboard.

She didn't wait for him to turn his attention to her again. No, she had realized that it wouldn't help to just speak without fighting for his attention. So instead, she changed her tactic, an suddenly she sat on the floor in front of him, on the other side of the board. "Do you mind if I take over the game?" she asked. He nodded a yes. He would mind.

"White is going to win, no matter what move black makes. If I was you, I would ask to play a new game instead of continuing this, since the outcome is already certain." His words didn't seem to cover the actual truth, since black had more pieces on the board that white, but she just nodded her head, not wanting to deny him his words. He cleared the board from pieces and began placing them again, every once in a while looking up to see her looking at him.

Then, he made one of the most famous beginnings of the game ever. The pawn in front of the queen two squares forward. "What is it you want to talk about? Thought it was done." It would be easier if he just ended it. If he took a hand around her neck and made it snap. He didn't want to argue with her, and he was sure it was where it would end.

"I wanted to inform you that my feelings are intact," she said as she took the opposite pawn of her own forward in front of his, not knowing a thing about what she was doing. His reaction was moving the right knight into place, so it protected his own pawn. "I still wouldn't mind if you and I..."

His voice was low and peaceful as he spoke. "Either you don't care for your life, or you're just plain stupid." He waited as she was trying to think of both an answer and her next move. Her hand was flying just above her black pieces, before she took her fingers around the pawn in front of the king and moved it beside the other black pawn.

"Maybe you just mean a lot to me?" Her newly set pawn got taken by his white pawn. "You weren't nice before, so I would have the right to hate you." The first pawn she had moved took one step forward. "Yet, I came here, didn't I?" The white knight took that pawn out, too. "Love is supposed to blossom, even in a world as destroyed as this." Immediately, she let her queen take the knight, believing she had won the small battle they had had. But the white queen took out the black one, leaving Bryan to force away a smile because of her stupidity, both in game and speech.

"I don't know love." And he feared the reaction love could get from his body and mind. "And I'm not interested in it."

"How can you know if you are interested or not?" She took her knight out to take the white queen in the next round. His reaction was putting the queen out of reach for her, by taking it one step back to the left."If you don't know love, I can teach you. You can't say you aren't curious about it, can you?" Being cautious of his queen, she let the knight stand set, hoping the pawns behind it would protect it. Instead, she moved one of the bishops in front of the king.

He moved the pawn in the middle of the board one step forward. "It's too big a feeling," he said as she took out the pawn with her own. He took the queen diagonally to the right, taking out the pawn and threatening a black knight, rook and pawn. "Can't see what it's good for."

She was silent as she felt a sting of panic. How was she moving herself out of this mess? She took the threatened knight in her hand and lifted it up... only to set it down again. Then she took the bishop in front of the king... and set it down again. After a few more seconds of thinking, she took up her other knight... and moved it up beside the king.

Relaxing a little, though not fully because she was getting beaten up by the teen in her front, she looked him into the eyes. "It's... for happiness. The only way you can feel true happiness is by feeling loved. Else... I guess... maybe you would just be empty, I don't know." Bryan took the pawn in front of his right rook and took it two steps forward, fighting hard not to break it by pressing it too hard. She was annoying him. A lot.

"Why should I care?" Cause he was curious. Really _was_. He would just rather want to go back to having no feelings. He was curious, he wanted to know all feelings... But all the while, the thought of feeling made him feel scared, an uneasy knocking in his chest. It was too little a feeling to be called scared, but to him, it felt like thunder in his normally not feeling body. Love... sounded too big. He was sure it would infest his body like a sickness if he let it in to his mind.

Once again, she was sitting, biting her fingernails while thinking of her next move. She had the feeling she was losing, and that the death-stab would come in a few turns. "I... Couldn't we just try? I know you have no feelings for me, but it could come. I could guide you..." Seeing that her bishop at the king's front could kill the pawn he had just moved, she decided it probably was a threat and took it. He lost a pawn... And now, she lost a bishop to the rook.

It was her turn again, and she felt she needed to protect her king. So she moved the knight his queen was threatening in front of the king. He took his rook to the side, so it stood in front of the knight she had beside her king. She took the knight in front of her king and set it to threaten the rook, standing in front of the pawn on the right side of her part of the board, only to see the knight move one step back. She moved the knight again, to the right, so it threatened the rook again. Only to realize it was protected, and he followed her gaze down the board to find another solution.

He began moving to kill now, and took the bishop standing left and behind the threatened rook and moved it, so it threatened her other knight. He followed how her gaze found its way to the rook that was threatened by his queen. And made a feelings-provoking sentence, hoping she would make the mistake he wanted. "... We... Can try it..."

It was more important for him to win the game fast than anything else, and for that reason, he forgot caution in real life. A smile was planted on her face as feelings began growing... and she made the mistake. She planted her rook so it threatened his queen. And he took the rook with the queen. Checkmate.

She moved her hand to move the king forward, not having seen the threat from the bishop. "You're checkmate," he informed, and she frowned at the board. The emerald used his hand, first to show the rook preventing the king to move diagonally right, then the queen standing to kill it and then the bishop, making sure it didn't move forward. But it wasn't what she was thinking about, and she looked into his green eyes. In hers brown, there was joy glistening.

"I'm just happy you let us try. You promise it, don't you?" Unfortunately, she didn't wait for him to answer, but just stood up and moved closer, around the chessboard. "Let me hear... tell me what you don't understand. I will make sure to teach you everything you want to know! I have some experience in relationships and such..."

Apparently, you choose the wrong people in your 'relationships', the emerald couldn't help thinking as he stood up and tried to back away. He had said he would try. It was stupid, and it was different telling her what he felt or thought than telling Tala about it. If it was Tala, he would ask what it felt like and what you did with a person you loved. Now that it was Hillary, what could he say? Not the same, right? Or...

"What does love feel like?" He stood over her, looking a little threatening. For that reason, she was fast to realize that he was serious about the question. And for that reason, the laugh she had started at his question didn't last. He... He was serious... He didn't know.

"Love... Love is... one of the strongest feelings you are able to feel..." Already there, love sounded like an enemy more than something he wanted. "But it's in many forms. You feel love, always. It's there, always. Towards your family, wanting to prove yourself to them and protect them, wanting recognition..." Family? "And... Friends... Well, you probably already feel it towards Tala, when you protect him as loyally as you obviously do..." ...Thought the feeling of wanting to protect him was pure forced instinct and habit...? "But the form you probably are talking about, and that I... can teach you, is... the love to a person... in the... as..."

How do you explain love? It didn't take much effort for her to find deep confusion in the face of the boy at her front, showing that he didn't understand a bit. He knew the facts, as he said, but that didn't say what it felt like, or what you used love to. It merely told him how people in love, or loving, looked and acted, and that it often lead to jealousy.

"I don't understand." She already knew that, but didn't know what to do with it. And he was creeping her out with his obliviousness, it was so far off... So different from everything and everyone she knew, for a person not to know what love was. How could she love a freak like this? … Yet, she decided not to give up.

"Can't you... ask instead? Ask something about love...? Then, I can try to explain..."

"Ask?" he repeated. What should he ask? How could he ask about something he didn't know? What was there to ask? "What... What does it... feel like?" He was hesitating, as he was cracking his mind to find a new question. Hillary just smiled, a dreaming expression coming over her face.

"It's just the most fantastic feeling in the world," she promised, and from the look in her face, Bryan believed her. He did not believe it was the most fantastic feeling for himself, but to her, it could only be if it could give her such an expression. To him, though, it would be a nightmare, a flame of hell, making him able to kill someone he liked and lose the little control he had an illusion of having. But at least, if he decided he would go on a rampage at the moment, he could not end up killing Tala.

God, he missed that redhead. Three whole weeks alone was alright, but the trouble was that he wasn't _all_ alone.

Snapping out of it, Hillary once again looked at him. She didn't know how to explain it to him, and he had some kind of a bewildered face. Like a child, a two-year-old, not knowing the world around him. It was so wrong for the sadistic teenager she had thought he was for so long to remind her of a kid. It was a rather disturbing thought.

She shook her head, once again trying to find the words to describe it. How could a feeling she claimed she knew so well be so hard to explain? "It's... warm. If it's the love towards a partner... In the beginning, it is just a tickle in the heart. To be in love. Afterwards... it... I don't know, sorry, I don't know how to explain!" She looked devastated, while he just looked at her with no change in his expression. And still, he didn't understand.

"I... I think I... Bryan, I'm sorry, but I can't explain it. It is too complicated, love is complicated. I can teach you the more physical part, if you want to. We can just do kisses and hugs, it doesn't have to go... that far." She still remembered last time she had tried that. And she could still feel herself fly through the air when he threw her out of the tent. Even after they had their argument, she continuously wondered if she was supposed to tell Tala about it. About his reactions to be touched that way, and how it felt so wrong that he could react like that to it...

These words made the wheels in his mind turn again, and after having thought it over for a while, he nodded. It was small, not even really visible, but still there. "I wouldn't mind." As said, he was curious about this feeling bred in hell. Very curious. Curious enough to risk the life of an innocent, naïve girl.

"Great!" she exclaimed, and the hollow mood that slowly had been coming over her disappeared. "Though... I have to go now. I have to go to Tyson and Rei, we decided to have some kind of team-reunion or something weird like that. I'll come back soon, okay?" She smiled, actually happy, and turned to walk out the door. Just before she closed the door, she turned around to look at him. He just forced a smile and nodded goodbye.

When the door closed, the smile faltered, and he looked down at the chessboard with the ended game. For some reason, he did not want to play a new game, and instead, he went to look for something else that was more entertaining. When he came back with a book that looked just slightly interesting, he saw something through the window Hillary had uncovered from the black curtains.

He froze, his heart skipping a beat. It was a group of teenagers. But that wasn't the unnerving part. In this group, a spot of pink were flowing around, and that meant only one thing. Mariah. His heart began beating again. It stung, as if pierced with a drill, and it was hot, as last time it had happened, but not impossible to handle, unlike when he had nearly killed off Tala in their old apartment. Actually, it was quite comfortable... if you were not Bryan.

Feeling himself losing control, he turned around, his eyes darting around the room to finding what he was searching for. Jumping for the nearest pen he could find, he found a place on the floor as a sentence shot through his chaotic mind, guiding him towards understanding. _In the beginning, it is just a tickle in the heart. To be in love._ He sat, the pen flying just over the paper in his open book. His whole body was rocking back and forth like an insane, the confinement too small to contain the things inside.

Then, the pen hit the thin paper, forming the first words of half an hour of none-stop writing. _I think I am in love, and I do not even know what that means..._

* * *

_Watching the small boy curl up on the seat, Kai could not help but feel uncomfortable. An orphan, sitting in a truck, on his way to another country. Though it seemed the man felt actual sympathy towards the small kid, the slate teen was unable to kick away the thoughts. He had heard of slavery, kids as soldiers, a lot of bad stuff, and he... could not remember what he had been doing now. There was not even the smallest piece of memory in this, even unlike everything that had happened in the Abbey and on the street._

_There, he had had a feeling of what was going to happen, and only used the scenes to make sure his own half-memories was right. Now... he did not even have a clue. Did not know if he was even going to get over the border._

_Even after many hours of drivi_ng, the man had been unable to get a conversation with the boy. Though looking scared, it was his stubbornness and hate towards humans that made him shutting the man out. He was left trusting no-one and nothing. Just as his grandfather had wished he would end up, but it did not the way his grandfather wanted. It happened without style, as a boy caught and beat broken on the streets.

They were nearing the border, the man constantly telling how far they were away. But when the border came in sight as a light in the black night, the man stomped the break, his nervousness getting too big for him. There were guards by the border... and what if the boy wasn't allowed to cross? He would get in trouble.

"Out," he sneered at the boy, who jumped in surprise at the change of tone in the man's voice. He gave a questioning look to the man, but the truck driver was not going to explain. Only getting ready to yell at the small figure.

The small Kai decided he did not want that to happen, so he opened the door and jumped out, forgetting how long down there was. He hit the ground hard, heavy drops of rain soaking him wet in seconds. An elbow and both knees was filled with scrapes, and he got to his knees with a wheeze of pain and turned his head towards the open door to the truck, fear showing on his face.

The man simply looked down on him with pity, making the fear turn into hate. "If you want to get over the border, try to sneak over there on foot. It's easier," the man promised, before he made the truck start again and drove to the border. And he was right, as the guards was checking everything he had in the truck.

But the boy was standing in the middle of nowhere, with a soaking-wet body and soaking-wet clothes, and without food or shelter. He sought out the the trees instead of staying on the road, fearing the humans more than the wild animals and therefore getting as far away from everything human as possible. It was night and dark, and he was tired.

So after having walking in whoever knows how long, he decided to stop at the border of a field with grass. There, he let himself slide down the trunk of a tree, providing some shelter. But he did not think about that. He only closed his eyes to sleep, exhausted and hurt after being betrayed by the truck driver.

_Kai decided to stay by his side for the whole night, and the morning too. The rain did not stop, but the heavy rain got replaced by drips so thin th_ey might as well have been fog. It was cold, though not icy, and the boy was able to sleep through it. But since he had used the last year and a half outside in all kinds of weather, it was no surprise.

It seemed peaceful and nice, until the sound of barking and howling cut through the silent sound of drops hitting leaves and straws of grass.

A big animal was sniffing its way through the grass, and something furry by the size of a small bear lifted its soaked head and stared at the boy for a moment. Then, some big ears was let flat down to its head, and some big canines was showing in an enormous mouth. It slowly neared the boy by the edge of the forest, the head lowered and ready to lunge at the kid. Even the paws were giant, and looked like a small and hairy version of the paws of a bear.

The body lowered itself, the hind legs getting in under the body. It growled, and just as it was about to jump, the boy got to his feet in a flash and sent the blue beyblade directly at the furry giant. The animal jumped to the side, and sneered at first the spinning blade, then the boy. Small Kai simply sneered back, standing in his own threatening position, even though he was up against someone trice as big as himself.

Though its brown eyes were locked on the blade, the beast moved towards its first prey. It did not like the spinning top, though you could think it would decide the boy as the bigger threat. But when the blade began moving, the dog jumped backwards, away from it, howling angrily. Its tail was between its legs, showing that it was scared. But still, even if it was just that, it jumped towards the beyblade, trying to destroy the threat.

Kai made the blade move away, which caused the animal to chase after it, and jump to the side when the blade moved toward it to attack. It took a long while before it finally could take one of the giant paws and place it on the blade, forcing it to stop. Then, the animal turned to the boy again, lowering its head again. It jumped, throwing the boy over and knocking him to the ground a bang.

"Ey! Nady!" a Russian, male voice called, and the animal turned its head to the side. Seeing the man, she wagged her tail and sat down, ignoring the trembling boy that was laying beside her. The owner of the voice was a man in his late fifties, thin and having a full-grown, well-groomed, silver beard. In front of him, a flock of sheep walking. "What have I told you about going away from the flock? You little, stupid fool, what if something happened?"

His tone wasn't angry, more playful, and the dog reacted by jumping up from her spot and running around the flock of sheep to him, standing up on her hind legs and placing her front paws on his shoulders. When standing like that, she was about his size. And he wasn't small.

"No, down with you!" the man said, laughing as she licked him in the face. She did what told, she long tongue hanging out her mouth as she sat at his side. One of his hands dug down her thick fur to her skin, scratching her harshly to get through all the way down to her skin. She just wagged the tail even wilder.

In front of them, Kai slowly got to sit up, groaning in pain. Hearing and seeing him, the dog stood up and growled from deep down her throat, getting ready to attack again. The man looked at her with confusion, then looked in the direction of her eyes. And it was only now that he saw what had caused his dog to misbehave.

A boy.

"Nady, back off," he demanded. She reacted by looking at him with her head turned slightly to the side, but she did as told and sat down again. He slowly walked forward, petting the sheep as he passed them, all of them bah'ing when he began scratching them. But the boy, when seeing him, found him even more threatening than the dog had been.

So he stood from the ground, limping slightly as he backed away from the stranger. "No, no, no, I'm not going to hurt you. Stay still, I think my dog might have hurt you." Having a river of sheep behind him as he walked, he tried to near the boy. In the beginning, Kai hesitated, but after a while, he got enough of it. He turned around and ran into the woods again, fleeing.

Hearing the dog bark behind him and get ready for a chase, the man turned his head. "Nady, stand guard!" The dog barked again, but in stead of running after the boy as she was about to before, it ran around the flock of sheep, cutting them off in their attempt to follow their owner.

The man ran into the woods for the boy, and after ten minutes of stubborn search from his side, he caught the boy.

_An hour later, Kai asked when he, with much embarrassment, saw himself try to fight himself free from the man. In a blur, he was suddenly alone on the rain-covered field. Find myself, he then demanded, and a new blur came._

_When everything wa_s clear again, the small Kai and the man was just walking inside the door to a small bedroom, Kai still making weak attempts to flee. Behind them, with the size of a small pony, Nady trotted. In the room, there was two beds. She sat by one of them, shook herself and her wet fur-coat, then jumped up on the bed, her brown eyes not leaving the boy for a second. She still found him a threat to herself and her flock, and it was her responsibility to protect them.

"Sit down on the bed," the man said, his tone kind, but still demanding. The boy stared at him, wanting to argue, but there was neither pity or hate in his demanding glare. And therefore, Kai did not know how to react. It was unlike everything he had encountered before, and so, he decided to listen to the man and sat down on the bed. The old man walked over to a drawer and found bandages for the wounds Kai had got when he had jumped out of the truck, fearing it was the dog that was responsible for it.

Then, he came over and sat down beside him, having antiseptic with him on a piece of cotton. "It's going to sting, but just try to sit still." The boy didn't look at him. His head was turned away, staring into the wall. But when the piece of cotton hit his open wounds, he bit his lower lip. "My name is Pyotr. And that is Nady. I'm sorry for how she reacted, but the Caucasian ovcharka is not very happy with strangers, and very protective. It doesn't help that she is big, even for her own race."

Still, the boy didn't look up or answer. The man waited for a while, giving the boy time to answer, but no answer came. "Where are you from?" Silence. "What about your family?" Silence. The man looked at the boy sadly, and a feeling that no-one had ever seen on his face flew over the boy. Guilt, hidden on the turned away face.

"You can live here if that's what you want." The boy's expression changed again, this time to fear. It was the same kind of promise the truck driver had given him. "I have food enough for a boy your size. You can't eat that much, hn?" There was laughter in his voice.

_The teenage-form of the boy decided to speed things up, and the next scene he demanded was the morning after. The man wo_ke up, and the first thing he did was walking to the room where he had let the boy sleep. But when he opened the door and looked inside, disappointment and sadness grew in his brown eyes. The room inside was empty.

"Guess he did not want to stay, hn, Nady?" he said to the dog, which had been sleeping on the bed beside his own. It just wagged its tail at his attention, and he went for the front-door. "We have to get the sheep out again. They were not out long enough yesterday, thanks to your little adventure. Not that I blame you. That kid wouldn't survive for long without anything, and he got the chance to stay here... But he's too stubborn to get back here, if he really ran away." They went for the stables, but before they went inside, Nady reacted to something. She was growling, her ears laying flat on her head, and the reason was found just inside.

When Pyotr opened the door, he was met by the sight of the boy, sitting on the floor with an armful of cats between the many curious sheep. "Do you like animals?" The boys lifted his gaze, and the smile that had been on his face vanished. "You were about to away run, weren't you?" Looking down, the boy nodded with a grim look. "What stopped you?" He looked up again, then nodded at the sheep. The man smiled. "You may stay as long as you want."

"No!" the boy exclaimed, standing up suddenly. The four cats that had been sitting on him jumped off, scared by his sudden actions. By the door, the man just watched him calmly, not making any move to walk over to the boy or speaking. "I can not waste your food. I will not be troubling you. I will not-"

"I never expected you not to work for me, son," the man said, taking the kid by surprise. It seemed he had figured more out about the boy and the way his mind worked than he let anyone know. "I live alone with my dog, four cats, eleven sheep, three hens and a cow. I think I have more than enough work for you to do. And I hereby give you the responsibility of my sheep. You and Nady makes sure they get on grass, and that none are forgotten, and you give the cow and the hens in the other stable food every morning."

"And what are you going to do, then? Sit back and relax in your couch?" the kid spat, venom in his words. "I know your kind of people." Pyotr just shook his head, sighing. He looked sad, but hid it as good as he could. The last thing the none-trusting boy needed was pity, or something that was looking like it. He was too 'strong' for that.

"I have been living alone with too much responsibility for six years now, and I have two stables and a house, both over a hundred years old. The buildings needs a little attention, and now that I have someone to take care of the animals, I can concentrate on that. But, only if you want to take care of my sheep, of course." He offered the boy his hand, the brown eyes looking at him calmly. "Is it a deal? Food and shelter for work?"

The violet eyes watched the hand with doubt. But something about the man made him relax. And so, he took the offered hand and shook it, and the reestablishment of his humanity began in that small shake.

_The teenaged Kai watched as the smaller version began changing. After two months, he could sit beside the man without looking as if he expected for the man to beat him up every second. After five months with the man, he did something he hadn't done for what seemed like a hundred years. He smiled unprovoked and in the presence of a human. After ten months, his relationship with the giant sheepguardian and his partner in work, Nady, was good enough for her not to growl if he came too close to her. But with that monster in his past, Kai could understand why he preferred cats for dogs._

_The old, lonely man on the farm in the middle of nowhere was becoming a figure for the boy. Not as a father, but as a grandfather was supposed to be. Slowly, layer for layer, Pyotr ripped the boy that had been apart, shaping him into what he had been supposed to be. A boy. A kind boy with warmth in his heart and trust in his soul, and a mind that allowed him to be something other than the best and perfect. A boy, that might not be playful as he was supposed to in that age, but instead he was serious, with the adult's dry kind of humor. And it warmed this part of Kai's consciousness to see what had been. But it was a boy, that now was lost once again._

But one day, when Kai had reached the age of eleven, he had gotten bold enough to approach the man without being forced to. They were in the kitchen, Nady standing like a small bear by the door to the living room. Kai was sitting by the table, his hair wet after a bath. He had probably just been out with the sheep, as he was supposed to.

And though he was not helping Pyotr cooking, they still had some kind of contact with each other. But then, out of the blue, the normally totally silent boy opened his mouth to speak. "Pyotr..." The man turned his head away from the food, showing he was listening. "How come you live alone in a house, that has room for a big family?" The man turned his head back again, away from the boy. He hid that he was biting his lower lip, in exactly the same way as the boy had done the first day they met to overcome the pain of getting his wound cleaned.

He drew a small breath, then left the food to sit down in front of the boy. "If I tell you my story, will you tell me yours?" he asked, staring the boy into the eyes. Insecurity came over the young face, but after a moment of hard thinking, the kid nodded. "I had three sons, a daughter and a wife. When he was only four, my oldest son disappeared into the woods a winter, never to be seen again, breaking our hearts with sadness. My daughter went to Moscow to try it out when she was at the end of her teenage-years, after having a fight with my wife. She wanted to be something, she had said. Not the daughter of two poor farmers. The next thing we heard about her was many years after, when the police contacted us, was that she disappeared, and no-one had seen her. I... never had the chance to tell Katie that I loved her, no matter how much her words hurt." Never had Pyotr's voice been so dead. It was like a robot, repeating something a person had once written.

"...It sent my wife into a deep depression, since she had never recovered from losing our first son, and she attempted to hang herself in the stables. I was in Moscow at the time, to my last uncles funeral, so it was my two other sons that saved her in the last minute. The winter after that, my youngest son got attacked by a flock of wolves. The winter was bad, so the animals sought for new sources of food, and our sheep were the perfect victims. He and two of our Caucasian ovcharkas died, but somehow, Nady changed herself. She would help _me_ survive, attached herself to me and the house. She decided to give the house and grounds a new appearance, after all her bad luck, as she called it.

_Her_ bad luck." Sarcasm found it's way into his voice. "She was the angel that helped _me_ through the times of trouble, when we lost one after another because of me. When my last son died in a car-accident, she got sick. I thought it was as a cause of sorrow, but when we finally decided to go to the doctor, we were told she had cancer in her stomach. She survived until seven years ago, slowly wilting away before my eyes as the monster ate her insides away."

A sad smile broadened on his face, and Nady trotted over to his side and stared up at him with her brown eyes. She could feel that her owner was sad. Pyotr took his hand on her head, smiling at her. "It was Nady's family who bred the ovcharkas, and I decided I wanted to share the tradition. It is dangerous out here, with the animals, and the ovcharkas we were breeding were big and brave enough to chase off wolves and bears. When Nady died, our genus of dogs were nearly dead, after over thirty years of breeding. We only had one male and two females back when she died." He padded the dog on the head, his voice getting warm again. "Exactly one year after her death, one of the females gave birth to three cups. Two males with blue eyes and black fur. And a female with the most beautiful, brown eyes and a dark-brown fur, both like my wife's eyes and hair."

The boy's eyes were pulled down to the giant dog by his side. Brown eyes. Dark-brown fur.

"When they only were puppies, another of the bad winters overcame me in my lonely home, and the wild animals once again had to stray far and close to humans to find food. A bear came here and tried to take my sheep, and ovcharkas have a strong instinct of protection. But the other female adult had died of age, so they were only two adult dogs and three half-grown puppies.

The bear died, but it was at a cost. Of my prided ovcharkas, I now only have one left. But it's Nady. I know it's stupid, but I believe... Have you heard that humans tend to get religious when they lose their loved ones? ... I think... that my wife decided to come back. And since she knew that I wouldn't live long enough for her even to be old enough to find me if she came back in human form, she decided to be born as one of my dogs. Nady always loves to lie in my wife's old bed, and she always argues with me if I change the way the furniture stands. My angel came back to me, boy, and though alone, I'm a happy man..." Pyotr stopped his speech with a smile, waiting.

But Kai didn't like to speak. He didn't really want to talk about it, to tell, though he knew the man had poured out his heart and soul to him. So he formed the past with his words, wanting to make it the truth for even himself. "I... My parents left me when I was four. Both of them. I... was put in an orphanage. They beat the kids. I didn't like it. So I left and lived on the street for a year. I decided I didn't want to live in Russia anymore, so I found a helpful truck driver and hoped to get over the border to Hungary. Unfortunately, the truck driver was a coward, and he threw me out very close to the border without any hope of surviving."

Pyotr nodded and took his hand forward and placed it on the slate- and black-haired head. "Everyone have problems in their lives. But when things are really, _really_ bad, just remember... There is always a light if you look forward on the road of life. Sometimes, you just have to look for it twice." Kai frowned skeptically. "Well, at least act like you believe an old man's words, you can even make a sixty-year-old feel stupid with that look!"

_Kai watched it all. He watched every second of all the wake hours of their lives, getting fond of the man that thought so little about his own needs. And it all was good... until a day the man left to get the meat from the lamps from the sheep and the extra eggs and the milk from the cow to Moscow, where he sold it. The boy was left alone, and the teenager didn't expect any disaster, having forgotten how life outside this little fairytale was. _

It was so sudden. The boy was sleeping his bed, alone in the house. Nady was with Pyotr in Moscow. But what woke him up was a bang, when the front door was thrown open. He sat up in the bed, old instincts still living, and with wide eyes looked around in the room. He could hear barking from the living room, and Pyotr calling his name.

"What is it?" he asked, throwing open the door. Pyotr looked stressed out.

"Run, Kai, my son! You have to get out of here!" the old man said, motioning wildly. "I told about you to one of my old friends in Moscow... I'm so sorry. I did not know you had anything to do with them... think they are not coming in a day or two, but you have to get so far away you can. It's-" There was the sound of a car on the bumpy road leading to the house, and the man tried to grip the boy. Kai let him take his arm and lead him to the window...

But he didn't get that far before the door was thrown open again, by Voltaire himself. Nady growled and jumped for him, doing what she could to protect her owner, but a gunshot was fired at her, and in behind Kai's grandfather came Boris with Bryan beside him. It was the boy who was holding the gun, and he pointed it from the dead dog to the man as Boris moved forward to grab Kai. It took only the man a few seconds to walk over and force the twelve-year-old's arms behind his back.

The slate was too terrified to move at first, staring at the now dead body of the dog. Pyotr was about to yell at them, for the loss of his beloved dog, but Bryan took a step forward, still holding the gun ready two inches from the man's face. But the boy was waiting for orders, the green eyes staring dead at the man he was going to kill in a few minutes, scaring the man more than the thought of dead or what was going to happen to his new fosterson after he had left. Those dead eyes...

The boy unfroze and tried to get free from Boris' death-grip. He didn't succeed, and could only stare with sadness at the old farmer, knowing it would only be a matter of words before he would lie dead beside his giant dog, another person on his too-long list of disappointments.

"Well, well, well, I guess it was stupid to think you dead? You are a Hiwatari, after all." The boy's violet eyes forced themselves from the man to his grandfather, and though fear overcame his features for a second, it was soon replaced with hate. Voltaire's hand suddenly flew through the air, and he backhanded his grandson across the cheek. The boy gasped in pain, and the fear appeared clearly again. "I thought you had learned, kid! I thought that you understood that bounds, 'love' and others only cause pain, and here you are, trying to protect a simple, poor, disgusting farmer!"

"_Don't_... hit children while I'm watching, sir," Pyotr snarled, backing away from the preteen in his front. At the sound of his words, as powerful and determined as always from the kind man, Kai once again found strength to stare the old man at his front down. Voltaire did not like this progression, this change, in his grandson, and he knew where it came from. So, with a cruel smile that was so wide it looked like his face was going to crack and left a demon jump out of his body, he turned to Bryan.

"Shoot him. Show Kai what happens if he listens to the wrong words." The young, gray-haired teen got ready to pull the trigger. And with new strength, Kai struggled against the far bigger Boris.

"The only untrustable humans is the one's touched by your influence," he spat, nearly breaking his own arm in the fight. When the gun was fired, the boy froze, and it looked as though life was leaving his eyes and body, too.

_Furious was not the word. Kai's mental mind was so angry it felt like insanity, staring at his own grandfather first smirking at the knowledge of causing pain to the last of his family and then slapping this last family across the face. Though he did not like the thought, he wanted nothing more than to kill the old man for his doings in the past of his that he did not remember. He lifted his hands, getting ready to strangulate him mentally, his thoughts racing._

_How? How could his family be like that? How come the world wanted him to suffer so much? Why was he supposed to lose everything? Why was Voltaire his grandfather? And... why couldn't he remember the lightest part of his life, where Pyotr finally showed him the good things that could be in the world? Why was all his memories clouded?_

The scene changed again, but this time, there were only Kai, Boris... and Voltaire sitting behind his desk in the now well-known office. Boris had forced the kid down on the floor, pulling the boy's hair to make him sit still. "How far have you gotten in the project?" Voltaire asked. "He will be living with me in Japan when you are done with it. He's old enough for that now."

"We'll be able to make most of his memories disappear, but it's uncertain for how long. All we know is, that it won't be permanent. Though some parts we can nearly destroy totally, at a slight risk of his health. What you want gone is all for your choice." It was all said as if Voltaire was picking drinks for a pool-party, but a scared look had come upon Kai's face, and he began wrestling to get away. But Boris had too hard a grip on him.

"Erase all his memories. I don't want him to believe anything else than what I tell him from now on. And the time with that simple farmer... destroy those memories. He must not have even the slightest thing left from that."

"There is always the risk that he will recollect it, as there will always be a little left for him to collect. But I promise you, sir, what he can might not even be worth worrying about. And... if you erase the memories from the last three years, he will get the personality and the experiences from when he was a street urchin will be back." It didn't look like Boris was uncomfortable by this. He just smiled a wicked smile.

"Do it, no matter what. The only thing I want is that he trusts me. If that doesn't happen, you might as well just kill him. He has caused me too much trouble already."

_The scene disappeared as fast as it came, and what was left was Kai. And he was more angry than any time before, hate had replaced his long for getting acknowledged by the man. That... that was the reason he didn't remember anything. And now, he was going to wake up and kill these people, and make sure they would never see the sun again._

_But now that he tried to wake up, he realized he couldn't remember how. He couldn't even remember who had told him how to do it, and his mental eyes searched for help to get up. The anger nearly faded to panic, fearing that he would be trapped in this nothingness forever, until a voice called him... And for once, he didn't feel longing or fear for it._

"_I'll help you." The voice was genderless, as genderless as the eyes that once again emerged from nowhere. Bright, green eyes, with nothing good in them, came to look upon him again, and out of black flames, a body rose. But unlike the women, unlike _her_, it looked wrong. Still beautiful, Black Dranzer as if someone had been sewing two different half's of bodies together, one man, one woman. The only thing that really looked the same from one side of the body to another__ was the eyes, and the creamy color of the hair. Even the crown on it's head seemed to be forged from two half's... And yet you were able to see _her_ in that splitted body._

"_What will I have to give you in return?" the slate asked, not trusting the other one. But the bitbeast just turned it's head, so that only the male half of the smile was visible. Also the colors of the bitbeast's skin-tone differed, the male part being golden-brown, while the woman part ivory-white. _

"_What makes you think I expect something from you?" the voice asked, with the sound of both a male and a female. Then, turning again, the slim hand of the female was taken forward. It looked exactly like her's. "I'll show you the way. Just take my hand." It didn't take any more convincing. Kai already did as asked, and he felt something getting closer. If it was reality or death, he did not know._

* * *

Night had overcome the city, curling around it like a giant, black blanket. The stars glistened down on them like small dots of gold and silver, and the moon stared down with its cold beams, covering the overgrown walls and the black windows of the dead houses with a ghostly light. If it had been a year ago, it would have been called a night for lovers, and it was still beautiful. But without life to lighten it, it seemed more like the hour for ghost and monsters.

But in the middle of the street in the border of the city, another light was playing between the walls. It was the light from a fire, and no matter how the world around a fire was, the light itself would always be warm. There was the smell of meat, since the hunters, meaning Bryan, had decided they, meaning himself, were tired of eating the can-food they could find, he had called the hunters together. And the hunt had been successful, even though they did not trust him as they trusted Falak, whom he substituted.

That meant, because of the meat, Bryan was being 'social' for once. If social could be sitting around a fire with people you already know without saying a word after having made sure there was no pink-haired girls near him. Hillary was beside him, talking to him about whatever came into her mind. She had tried to get him to hugs and kisses, like she did with her normal boyfriends. But unfortunately for her, he was not a normal boyfriend, or even a normal person. So the lessons in love was going poorly.

They were sitting, eating, the other professional bladers and some newcomers talking and playing around over the food. They were having fun, but in a way Bryan couldn't understand. But, well... his ways of fun was causing others pain, so that was no real surprise if their more peaceful way of fun seemed boring to him.

And so, the dinner went normally and quiet, with only the difference of Bryan being with them. Or, it went normally until the food was half-way eaten and the first was getting done. Cause there always was one you could expect to do unexpected things, and he was doomed to find out one thing this night.

"No..." someone gasped. Apatite eyes widened, a plate was tightened in pale hands. Brooklyn suddenly sat up straight, then stood up from his place in the circle and backed into the shadows, unreached by the light. Either it was an illusion, or Bryan could see tears in those eyes. The others didn't react until the sound of a one-sided argument began rolling from the darkness. "I'm not- No, you can't make me do it! Never will I- I know that, just keep quiet and listen for once! I- No, your Majesty, I did not mean it like that, I'm sorry- There must be another way- I said I _know_!"

It was only a low, hiccuping hiss, but this hiss was carried far. But one thing was sure, and that was that he was moving away from the fire. The others turned, silence growing over the laughter that had been only seconds before. No-one said a word, and this silence broadened to the fires around them.

Finally, someone decided to break the silence, and a concerned Tyson stood up. "What's that about?" His words were directed to Garland, the one who seemed to know the citrine the most. But the first answer didn't come from the material artist. At least not in the first place.

"He is crying," Bryan said, startling the rest with his voice since it was the first he had said since he had come to them. "At least I think I saw tears in his eyes." The green eyes were directed over to Garland, who sat directly across him, on the other side of the fire. The flames dancing between them did not help the stone-eyes get less scary.

It all seemed down Garland, and he looked from person to person, feeling slightly helpless. "Ehm... Well, once before have I seen him argue to himself... He had a vision then. And a few months later, the police contacted him while the whole team were at Boris', and asked if he knew anything about the murder of his big brother, since he had phoned him the same day, exactly an hour before the murder, telling him goodbye and asking him not to be afraid. It was weird to call, as the police claimed, when they hadn't been friends or seeing each other for years. Brooklyn later told me that he did, in fact, see the murder of his brother when a vision caused him to yell."

The silence got back, but from the darkness, the low murmur that now was all they could hear got more intense. Then, Tyson stood up from his place and began going in the direction of the voice. "Where are you going?" Garland asked, making the midnight-haired halt for a second to turn around and face the fire.

"If he is arguing to himself because of one of theses 'visions', and if he is indeed crying as Bryan claim, do you not think he might be afraid, then? Or at least sad. If it had been anyone else, at least half of you would have seen the person disappear, and at least a quarter would have stood up to comfort him. But now, it is Brooklyn, and nobody moves? No-one cares?" Tyson sounded utterly pissed, before he turned again to walk faster. And at the words, others reacted.

Garland and Ming Ming stood and ran in Tyson's direction, obviously feeling bad for knowing that Tyson had said the truth. Brooklyn was always a special case, and if you could you left him alone so he wouldn't get too much to do with him, no matter what he felt. It wasn't because they didn't like him, he was just... scary most of the time.

The rest of the people around the fire did not follow. Rei was about to stand, but the no healthy Lee took a hand on his knee and shook his head, thinking more people only would stress Brooklyn even more. But Bryan decided to find out what his Bishop was doing. He had to admit he was quite sure the citrine just wanted to be left alone, for reasons he didn't know he was certain of it, but at the same time, something he felt he needed to know of was going on.

He moved as the last one, without getting noticed by anyone but a Hillary that did not really want to care, and the sound of Brooklyn had disappeared. After having passed a few streets, he finally got the desperate voice of the citrine boy. And Bryan couldn't help but wonder how well the other boy's mentality felt.

Turning the last corner, he found a scene of Garland, Ming Ming and Tyson standing 10 feet away from Brooklyn, not knowing what to do now. "NO! I told you I wouldn't, and you can't make me! I don't care about the others! I don't want to do it! What have they ever done for me, to make me do it? WHAT have they done for me, your Majesty, for me to even want to lift a finger?" The teenager was standing with his front to the group, screaming at them like a maniac. Yet the brilliant, blue orbs focused on something between himself and the group.

The emerald moved closer while Brooklyn kept quiet for a few seconds, panting heavily at them with a wild look. But after the a few seconds, Ming Ming decided she would make a move. "Brook-" she whispered with a kind of compassion, sympathy and kindness she never had shown before, taking a step forward. But when she had taken the step, something weird happened. Brooklyn fell to the ground, as if slapped by a human hand.

And a few drops of blood landed on the cold asphalt where he already had hurt his palms.

Finally, Tyson forced himself out of his fearful, confused trance at this sight, and though confused, he quickly sat down beside the citrine and took and arm around him, trying to get through to him. The apatites just stared blindly at the rough ground under his hands, surprise and hurt carved into his face in the four long, deep scratches that covered his right cheek.

"What happened?" Garland asked, looking scared and bewildered. But he sat down beside Brooklyn and tried to contact him, while Ming Ming was standing dumbfounded from where she had been standing before her teammate fell to the ground. But instead of reacting to them, Brooklyn sat, shaking like a dog getting scolded, before he took his hand to his ears, as if he tried to block out an inaudible sound.

The two boys shared a look, but neither of them found the answers in the others face. "Brooklyn?" Tyson asked again, trying to shake the other boy while Garland tried to dry the blood of the pale cheeks with his sleeves. "Why are you bleeding? What is going on?" They were both concerned. And too caught up in their work to notice Bryan sneaking up on them from behind, his steps so silent that not even Ming Ming realized he brushed past her.

He used his foot to push the two aside and dragged the prodigy to his feet. "Snap out of it," he demanded roughly, and for the first time since the white teen got into view, his eyes focused on something living. Behind his back, the two boys and one girl behind him stared daggers into his back, but that was something Bryan would never care about at all. "Explain."

Brooklyn just shook his head no, the blood from the scratches once again painting half his face red. Forcing himself to not lose control, Bryan's hands were clenched into fists as they tickled to feel the silky skin of the teen in his front connect and cause blood and bruising. But that was thoughts that he should not think, it was too tempting.

"Bryan, what gives you the right to be here?" Ming Ming asked, back to her normal, snobby attitude. "It's not like you have anything to do with him, or deserve to be near him, for the matter." The green eyes turned from the white teen, who tried to dry off the blood from his face without drenching the still perfectly white clothes. The small, blue-haired girl stared up in the cold face of the emerald, challenging him. Which meant challenging her possible death.

The only thing drawing his concentration off the annoying girl, was that Brooklyn began mumbling again, his gaze unfocused to something they couldn't see. He remembered the half-promise he had made Tala about not losing control, and he pushed past Brooklyn, making sure to touch him. "I'm going for a ride," he said, causing most of them to shiver in fear of his driving. But Brooklyn just stared after him, the scratches finally stopped bleeding badly.

"May I come with you?" he asked, and Garland could not help staring at the normally cautious teen like he had lost his mind.

"Brooklyn, are you su-" the material artist asked, lifting his hand and taking a hand to stop the white teen by gripping his shoulder. But once again, Brooklyn did something he never had done before. Instead of listening to the hand that hold him, as he would normally do, he shrugged it off, and it was even with a violent atmosphere about the force of the movement. And Garland knew that something was very, _very_ wrong.

But they kept quiet. If Brooklyn wanted to go into that car freely, they would not stop him, and so, they watched the white teen disappear where the darker one already had gone.

Bryan found his car in front of his apartment and stepped inside, without once having looked back over his shoulder. But still, he was aware of the teen coming and waited for him to open the car and sit in the seat. "Why are you here?" he asked harshly, while Brooklyn was staring out through the windshield. The emerald stared at the scratches the other one had gotten out of nowhere before he turned the key in the ignition and gassed a bit.

The start of the car made the white teen react, and he nearly jumped five feet in his seat. The blue orbs turned to the emerald, and Bryan realized then how much Tala and this teen looked alike. Only a few nuances were different in hair and eyes, as well as the face. "I just needed to get away," Brooklyn said, once again reacting when the car backed and turned around. This time, he gripped the door in attempt of keeping himself steady.

"What are you doing?" Bryan asked, staring at the other one, first at the hands that was cramped around everything that you could hold on the, then the seat belt that actually was fastened. It didn't make sense to him at all.

"I'm not happy about cars, and you drive pretty fast," the other teen answered, just as they began speeding down the jet black streets. His whole body was tense, and he whimpered silently when they turned a corner a little too fast, which meant the car skidded a bit on the rear. For once, Bryan's smile was broad. Others misery. Sweet...

But he forced himself to concentrate and slowed down, so he could get the other to talk. "Who were you talking to?" It sounded just as insane in his own ears as to everyone else, but he did not care. It was the right question, and Brooklyn did not look at him like he was weird. Instead, he turned his head back around and focused on something in the back of the care that was not there.

"No-one."

"So no-one hit you and gave you those scratches?"

"Exactly," was the answer, and the blue eyes met the green just before Bryan made an abrupt turn, forcing the blue ones to the road as he gasped and grasped the door again. As he let go of the door once again, he stared at the other teen once more. "Would you meet your fear for someone else?"

Bryan's thoughts immediately turned to Tala and the rest of his team. But there was a problem. "I do not fear anything else than the thoughts in my own head and the feelings in my mind," he said, speeding up at the border of the city. He had not driven out of the city yet... it could be fun to do that sometime...

"That's a lie." The voice cut through his thoughts, and he looked at Brooklyn, who was once again staring behind his shoulder at something that wasn't there. But the words continued to one single, lonely sentence, and it caused Bryan to shiver, like he felt those touches once again. "You fear Boris more than anyone."

Lightning shot through the emerald eyes, and he stomped the break hard at the words. Anger tried to overtake him and make him hurt the one beside him. "Do not speak of him, or I will end up hurting you," he said, and it sounded more like a threat than what it really was. A request to a useful piece he would be sad to rid himself off by mistake, and immediately after he had said it, he started driving again, hoping to calm himself down by doing that.

"But would you face your fear for someone?" Brooklyn asked again, not mentioning Boris another time. Bryan gripped the steering wheel so hard his knuckles whitened, and his eyes were fixed on the road before him. But when he, somehow, relaxed his body a little, he nodded to the question. "What if these someone's weren't your team, but a bunch of people that did not respect you, did not treat you nicely and never would be able to see you as a human?"

Anger was replace by a new feeling. Sadness, as he recognized the description of the people in the group in the white teen's words. He could only barely place the name to the feeling, and he slowed down to think hard. Would he? Or wouldn't he do it? For them? But he did not have to think. Not even for a minute. "No. I would never do something like that for such people."

Brooklyn, who had been looking at the gray-haired teen for a while, turned his head to look through the windshield , again, and he sighed heavily as the words sunk in and got understandable... He closed his eyes, tears filling them as they had when he had been screaming in his insanity. The world really was against him.

"That was what I feared you would say."

* * *

Alright, this is my fourth- or third-longest chapter, and probably one of the absolute most important I have written yet. Once again, I'm busy, so I don't really have time to look it through at all. But I have vacation, so if you are lucky, I might actually only take a week to update once more! - If you are lucky.

Also, I hope you remember what I wrote at the top about telling me the difference between writing as you speak, and then normal writing. It would help me a lot with me grades, cause the only reason I got a B is not because I don't know enough words or anything, but because I, apparently, write as I speak! x3 … didn't I say that at the top, too?

Anyway, enjoy in joy and don't get angry because I don't update as often as before. I'm writing as fast as I can without affecting my time with my new friends!


	20. Awakening Life

Alright, here again, and things are getting exciting once more now! I realized more people are (or at least have been) reading this story than I thought, since I (finally) understood how you can see your stats (I'm NOT a computer-genius. If I can write on my computer, then I'm happy). Anyway (I use that word too much, do I not?), I have reached chapter 20 and have over 200.000 words now in this story! And I have no idea how to celebrate it, so instead I will reveal Kai's condition in this chappie (sorry, Kai-lovers).

Reviews:

Gateways: you don't have to thank me for anything; I guess I may still have more time than you have? You only got to review 16, but that only helps me answering the review. But it is typical for Bryan always to hurt himself in stupid ways, isn't it? xD Ehe, but well, Tala was a nasty kid, wasn't he? Yes he was, though I still love him ^^ But it would be pretty typical me to do such a thing in school... guess we really do look alike, don't we? ;)

Gud: It's the same as always with you, I don't really have any comments.

Cherry-Toxic: I was about to call you Phoenix-falling, sorry xD Anyway, as always, your reviews is a blessing of inspiration sent from heaven, so as long as you are reviewing, I can't help writing more. But the Russian climate is extremely interesting, since it is extremely cold in the winter, has between none and two weeks of spring/autumn, and then, it gets damn hot. Not the nicest place to live on the street, and I just hope I described his struggle well enough... Wait, did you just say you reread my entire over 200 words long story? o.O Really? Wow... Anyway, I'm not answering the question. But Kai still doesn't really trust, does he? And I have a bit of a problem with Bryan... See... I don't really know for sure where he is heading. But my fave lines in the chapter seems to be the same as yours xD

And then, I get to that point! What point? Chappie-point!

* * *

Awakening Life

* * *

_Still feeling as though he was making a backwards fall, Kai suddenly felt himself hit something new. It was like a wall, like he was trapped under the ice in a lake, unable to get past it. But instead of icy cold, it was warm and comfortable. But that didn't explain a thing, and the violet eyes turned once more to the half-creation flying just beside him and watching him with those green eyes._

"_What now?"_

"_You wait, of course. Wait, until you can get past it. You have been out for many, many months at this time, and your body is in a bad condition. So it will take time before you finally wake up after reaching this point. It may even not want you back, your body. It not an unusual situation." There was a smile on the beautifully disturbing face of Black Dranzer as it re-made its black flames. "You want me to keep you company, or do you want to get rid of me again?"_

_The slate stared at the black flames and dark clothes covering the weird body, then turned his gaze up and tried to force himself through with his mind. "You do as you wish," he said, and out in the corner of his mind- eh, eyes, he saw and felt the black flames consume the figure, so that only green eyes were left to watch him._

… _Beep … gasp, beep … Beep … _

_He remembered that sound now, and clung to it, to the unsteady rhythm of his breathing and heartbeat. Hoping he would finally wake up and live again, so he could _kill _that _grandfather _he did _not _have. _

"_He's wakening." The voice sounded familiar, and yet not really. He had heard it, but did not know from where. Oh, no, he knew who it was. It was his doctor, the one who had been doing surgery on him... who? He did not remember that, did he? Had he been there? Did he remember a surgery?_

"_How do you know that?" That voice you could never forget. It was Boris. It was pretty long since he had been here, but that was no problem. It was nice that he was not there too much._

"_You can see the face beginning to move. The eyes and eyebrow twitching, the mouth." It was the doctor that may be had done surgery on him that spoke again, and Kai's thoughts got even more confusing. He felt himself slowly fall through to his body. He was inside the wall, and the memories his body had collected fused with the memories of his mind, now that he was in the middle..._

"_How long till he really wake up, then?" Boris asked, and Kai could hear something move around him through the __constant beeping and sound of his breath. _

_More moving around, and then, the doctor's voice sounded further away this time. "A week, if we are lucky a few days. Unlucky, two weeks, but there is time for Voltaire to get over here and see his grandson wake up and find out how bad his condition is." The sound of a door opening and closing again, and then Kai was alone with his beeping… _

_But time seemed to pass fast, and his journey through the wall sped up. As he got further into it, he lost more and more of the things he could remember, of his grandfather's deeds, Pyotr, the street, the Abbey... And when he finally to_ok a breath of his own, the only thing left was the anger. He was angry, so angry he could not even describe it…

But why was he angry?

He felt like he had been sleeping for so long… Very long. Did he want to open his eyes? Not really. If he remembered right, he had been through four surgeries, his doctor's name was Andrey, Maxim had been in his room to apologies and Katyenka had come along and threatened him to ever wake up again.

His arm was gone, he had had a bad headache through most of the time, but that had gone after three months, it was the end of August, he had been out for about five months, and throughout these five months, and his grandfather had only visited him twice. His heart had been beating about 50 times a minute, the amount slowly falling every month he was sleeping, and he had breathed about 6 times a minute of every minute of every hour of every week.

And now, he only needed to open his eyes to wake up. He just did not want to do so…

But it was boring just to lie here. And he was so anger he wanted to rip things apart. When he was angry, he was training. So he had to get up and train, so he could get this feeling away from his mind. So he had to open his eyes.

Finally, he did so, opening his eyes, waking up from what he remembered as confused dreams of colors. The room was dark, no-one was in there... but his heart-rate began increasing, going from nearly death back to normal… It was actually interesting to wake up, and though it was dark, his eyes was used to no light, and he could see that the room was white, covered in tiles on the walls and ceiling, and he was lying on a pretty hard mattress.

He tried to move the hand he knew was alright, the right hand, but it did not react. He tried to growl in annoyance, but his throat felt dry and… wrong. He moved his tongue, but it did not listen to him when he tried to speak, and only an unintelligible sound came out of his mouth. Damn it! He tried again, but the result of it was the same as before.

Just then, the door opened, and light hurt his violet eyes as he saw light for the first time in many months. He closed his eyes, once again trying to speak, to yell at whoever came inside the room, but this time, he could not even get sound out of his mouth. He slowly forced his head to the side, away from this light that caused him pain.

"Kai." It was his grandfather. Somehow, the anger got new fuel, and he did not understand why. "I have been so worried about you." Is that why you only came two times while I was lying here? he thought to himself, once again trying to speak. It ended in a huff without words, but he began getting stubborn with this disability he seemed to have.

"Don't try to speak or move, Kai," the doctor said, coming over beside him with Boris and Voltaire and taking away the oxygen-mask. The teenager tried to move the hand he knew he had again, and managed to lift it a little bit this time. He wanted them away, feeling low with his inability to speak. "Open your eyes, Kai." He did as told, and this time, the light didn't hurt him. "Your muscles haven't been used for many months, so you are very weak right now."

_Weak? _I can _not _be weak!

"Now, I want you to try and move first your right, then your left leg." The violet eyes were directed to the doctor, and there were murder in them, but he did as told. It was slowly, and weak, but he was able to. "Then first lift your right, then your left arm." The slate raised an eyebrow, looking at Andrey as if he was stupid. Then, he opened his mouth.

"… I… D-don't… ah-ave… Mmmy…" He forced himself to say, and behind the doctor and Boris, Voltaire got a look of anger and displeasure on his face. His grandson couldn't speak. The boy was weak, broken and couldn't speak, no matter how much Andrey had tried to fix the damage. But the old man decided to stay… for now.

"I know that," the doctor said, as it was pretty obvious what the boy was trying to say. "But if you try to move it, you might get a pleasant surprise. First right..." Reluctantly, the slate moved his right hand. "And then-" Before he was done speaking, Kai decided to try if it really was true, or just a cruel joke from their side. A sound of metal and the movement of a machine were heard, and something lifted itself from the teen's left side.

The violets finally stopped glaring the poor doctor down. Instead they looked, or rather stared, at the false metal hand. He couldn't believe it. And it couldn't be his. He moved his fingers one by one, all of them reacting as he wanted. It looked like steel, and he could see wires and hinges that connected it all. Was he happy? Both yes and no. He felt like a robot, degraded to something of metal and steel … but he had an arm!

"It moves better than I thought," the doctor mumbled, as Kai stretched it out, then let it fall back to the floor. It reacted fast... too fast. As he let it fall back down, it flew down so quickly he could not even see it and hammered into the madras again, nearly breaking the wood below it … And he wished he had never gotten this new 'arm'.

He opened his mouth to speak again, but reminded himself that it was impossible. He knew the words... he knew every word he wanted to say... but his tongue was unable to form them. Instead, he just stared up at the doctor, showing all the anger in him with a single look. That was something he was good at, and Andrey hesitated, nearly afraid of the half-cripple on the bed in his front.

But he knew he had to continue, no matter what. That was the rule when you worked under Boris or Voltaire. So he found a small piece of paper and took it in front of Kai's one eye in lack of proper medical-devices. "Do you see me clearly?" he asked, and when Kai opened his mouth, he added: "You only have to nod or shake..."

"I… c-c-_can_… sssee… p-per… perfec… perfectly." The doctor simply nodded, then took the paper to his other eyes. To Kai's surprise and utter disbelief, the sight on his left eye was bad. It was as if the light in the room was darker, as if he was half-blind. How come he hadn't realized that yet? He simply shook his head this time, afraid of his grandfather's reaction.

And that with a good reason. When Voltaire realized that it was not only things he could overcome, like the muscles that had gotten weak, or something that might even be useful, like the fact that his grandson could no longer retaliate in every one of his words, but also something as important as eyesight… His grandson was weak and broken into smaller pieces than any time before, now that it had become physically. And he was worth nothing to him now.

Out of the corner of his good eye, the slate saw his grandfather turn away in shame and begin to walk out of the room. He then turned his attention to the doctor, demanding him to fix his eye with a single look in a way only he could, before he defied an order he had gotten from Andrey earlier.

With the new 'hand', he got a grip on the edge of his bed and pulled himself up. Once again, its reactions were twice as fast as what he was used to, but he was sitting. Then, still having the metal-hand to keep himself steady, he used all the powers he did not have to get the leg over the edge of the bed and down on the floor. The doctor was yelling at him, telling him to stop and not strain his body. This caused Voltaire to halt and turn around to the grandson he had just decided to abandon and kill like you did to an animal, which refused to obey orders.

"I'm… n_-not_…" Kai gasped as he put his feet to the ground and tried to get up. For some reason, the sight of this man gave him a feeling of _hate_. "… going to… le-let…" He made sure not to use the false powers in his metal-hand to stand, and slowly, with low balance and stubborn eyes. "… yo… g-give up… on… me." He stood there, radiating just as much strength as before he ended in a coma. And Voltaire even _smiled_ at him before he nodded and left again.

Kai turned his attention to Boris, and the two glared at each other for a long time before Boris turned and left to follow Voltaire. When that happened, the slate closed his eyes and fell backwards, showing the weakness he had and stared up and the doctor, sitting unsteadily on the bed. _Now_ he was able to see how his vision had worsened, now that they had showed it to him. "Wha… has hap-pend… to me?" he asked the man.

"You were found under the machine you normally trained with." … Maxim, that bastard… "Your left arm was crushed to splinters, and replaced with this arm, which is a mix of steel and aluminum and is directly connected to your spine to collect the orders from your nerves and brain for it to move, so it should function as an arm. The left part of your ribcage was also nearly destroyed, along with you femur, and your heart and brain was damaged.

Six ribs were damaged, and only one of them was able to heal naturally. The rest, and your femur, has been replaced with aluminum, but you should be able to breathe normally if you are cautious when you take deep breaths. When we fixed your ribs, we also fixed your heart..." What metal have you put there? Kai thought, bitterly. "... and we should have covered up all the damage. We have also tried to repair your brain, and I think we have saved most of your sight, a lot of your communicative-abilities and made sure you did not get paralyzed in the right side of your body."

Cannot see I have anything to be happy about. The violet eyes stared blindly out in front of him, trying to get it in to his mind and make it fit. It refused to do so; his mind would not accept all the things he had lost in seconds. But he flinched when he suddenly felt cold metal on his back, and he forced himself to look over his shoulder.

The doctor was listening to his breaths, and looked him into the eyes. "Take a deep breath," he ordered, but Kai had had enough of these tests that all did nothing else than showing him too light. Only one thing was in his head. He had to train. No way was he going to stay this way, unable to do anything. No way would he wilt away to a weakling.

"C-c-ca… Is there… anythi-thing… yo ca-can… do for … m-mi eye?" he asked. "O-orr… speak?"

"No… I have done what I can for your vision. If you are lucky you will regain your ability to speak, but it's unlikely," the doctor said, and it sounded as though he did not care at all for the well-being of his patient, only for himself. If Kai would not be able to function, he still had a death-threat to fear. "Now, take that deep breath I asked for."

And the slate did take that deep breath. He breathed in, filling his lungs and feeling a slight pressing on the left side of his chest where the metal-ribs had been placed. But when he left the air out of his mouth, he once again forced his body to move, and he began walking out of the room, the doctor behind him demanding him not to strain his body. Using the walls for support, he began walking through the many black corridors with no other objective than getting the strength back in his body. That was something that only could be done the hard way.

* * *

It was a bad day. The wind had risen from nothing in the morning to nearly topple the trees that were standing both in and outside the city, and giant drops of hot rain poured down over the dark, ghostly house. There was not a soul outside, as everyone would get soaked in seconds in that weather. The survivors all had fled into the houses they had chosen to live in when the rain started, making the streets empty of life.

And staring out at the deserted streets was Bryan, in the dark apartment his redheaded friend had left for too long ago. Hilary was behind him with a few of the others, sitting in the couch the emerald never used. They had been surprised by the sudden rain and had found shelter in the apartment of the most antisocial individual of their group, the incomers mostly being some of the neko-jin-adults that Bryan still did not consider a part of his group.

The only one other than Hilary, who wasted most of her time in his company trying to teach him to accept her many hugs and kisses, that he accepted as his 'responsibility' was Brooklyn. And the citrine had not said a word ever since the incident and their conversation in the car. Not that Bryan knew when he used most of his time away from the others. Or cared, for that matter, he only had to make sure the white teen survived, not functioned in the group.

It did not take long, though, before Hilary decided she wanted to get him closer again. Her feelings had become more possessive than just being in love, because she was craving for him to love her, but he neither could nor did. She rose from her seat and came over to him at his lonely place by the window, taking his hand. "Come with me," she whispered, seductively and too low for them to hear their words.

Bryan let her lead him to the kitchen, using her to get rid of the boredom he felt coming. She closed the door, her eyes on him all the time as they suddenly were alone again. She came over and took her arm around him, guiding his one arm around her as she pressed herself into his chest. For some reason, he did not feel anything as he held her securely, as he freed one arm to brush her brown hair with his fingers, as he took his head to the top of her hair and kissed down in the locks.

He did not feel a thing for her or himself, but on the other hand, he was not bored. That was why he continued.

Slowly, she lifted her head and looked into his truly beautiful eyes, then closed the distance between them, her grip around him getting tighter as she kissed his lips deeply. He answered, closing his eyes and letting her guide his inexperienced body. She felt his body over, the muscles that she nearly knew now, as his hands slowly let his hands go down her body, unbelievably gentle in every touch, and yet it was so... hollow.

But unfortunately for her, he had to open his eyes and look out the window at the black sky. His lips broke away from her, his body pushed her away, and without even looking at her again, his hands threw her to the floor. He jumped onto the counter, opened the window and to the sound of giant plates getting thrown around in the air, he landed on the ground and began running.

His happiness was enormous, and hurting him, and yet it filled him to the brink in an ecstasy he had never felt before. What the pain of the unusual feelings beforehand had blocking broke through at the sight before him. His body did not even notice he ran many meters to reach them. And behind him, many had noticed the darker shadow in the skies and the noise of the machine, them coming out in the rain to follow where it landed or follow the emerald with their eyes.

He halted for a moment when he reached a more open place, where the chopper had been heading. The machine fought with the wind, fighting to keep even as it reached for the ground. And as the gray-haired boy had already foreseen, a child-like figure jumped out of the still flying machine and rolled around on the ground, only to stand next moment.

The ecstatic happiness the filled his pained mind forced the emerald to crack a smile, and he walked over towards the machine. The figure turned 360 degrees, but then stopped, confused, and turned back to face the emerald. Then, Bryan heard the already foreseen snort and the already foreseen crossed arms.

Ian had never like Bryan a lot. He loved the emerald, sure, even as an emotionless bastard he had been a brother, but that did not mean he liked him. The bulky teen was like the annoying big brother the former street urchin never got to know, and that meant everything always ended in the same way. Only one was able to trigger Bryan that way, even the emotionless Bryan that was now gone. Ian was able to trigger things in him.

As the emerald got close enough, the short one grinned at him, even though he had promised himself not to do so. He had promised not to show the other how happy he was to see him. But the first comment was just as he had intended criticizing. "Thought we all had agreed long hair doesn't suit you," the short one said, laughing, as he jumped closer, as energetic and fast as ever, and jumped up to pull out a straw of the now long, gray hair. The wind around them was even worse because of the still landing chopper, and the rain splashed down, soaking them both.

A gray eyebrow rose slightly. "Well you have your own faults, midget," Bryan answered back, just as he would have done if nothing had changed and he was back in their apartment in Russia with their blond companion. As he would have done if he still was a human robot, a computer in flesh and blood.

"I'm short, what else do you ha- HEY!"

One of Bryan's big, pale hands cupped around the shorter's nose, and the smaller's hand shot upwards, effectively removing the hand. Then, he stomped on the Bryan's toes. They did not notice that the rest of the group had found their way to the chopper to find out if it really was who they thought, they just continued their ritual. Bryan poked Ian's nose hard. Ian kicked Bryan's shin hard. Bryan pulled out a lot of Ian's hair. Ian hit Bryan's stomach. Bryan sent a knee into Ian's stomach. And finally, the last part of the ritual was accomplished when Ian sent Bryan to the floor with a knee in his private part, sending the big one to the floor.

The rest gasped when it happened. They already knew the gray-haired's strength, and they feared what he could do. Never would they dare doing such a thing, but Ian just stood, laughing. Then, when Bryan lifted his head, the small one turned around and ran for his life, knowing that the bigger one would be up seconds after he did that movement.

The engine on the helicopter finally stopped after the troublesome landing, and a blond boy showed in the open door. "We did not land on Ian, did we?" Mystel asked, sounding worried as he stared down under the machine. Behind him, a small figure looked over his shoulder, looking just as worried.

"Alright, kids, get out," a known, female voice said, and the small girl who had been staring over Mystel's shoulder turned her head and looked into the machine. Falak herded the girl and three other kids out of the chopper, but before the athlete could follow, he was pushed aside by the redheaded wolf. Tala took one glance at the people who had assembled to welcome them, and searched for his teammates instead.

And when he found Ian's small figure speeding down towards the trees in the park with another blurry figure, he couldn't help smiling. At the same time, he sighed in annoyance. "Why can't I let those two be alone for five seconds without this scene being the next thing I meet?" he mumbled, shaking his head, then lifting a big gun off the helicopter with a sickening light glistening in his eyes.

"Thought Bryan was... 'different' last time they were together?" Hilary came forward and asked the redhead, still looking mad after his rough treatment of her just a few minutes ago.

She was just answered by a smile as Tala continued watching his new gun, the slender fingers caressing down the metal, looking for faults as they had done over a hundred times before. A favorite weapon was something special for the user. "The only one who always manages to drive Bryan over the edge is Ian," the redhead told her, even if he did not look at her. But one of the adults, the same who had been arguing with Bryan when Tala left.

His arms were crossed as he stared at the wolf, the feline teeth showing. He was not happy. "So you decided to come back again. Mind telling why the f... why you left?"

The redhead looked up at him, then tilted his head to the left and raised an eyebrow. "I was collecting my midget," he told, the heavy rain rolling down his cheeks and making his long hair fall down from its place, the horns ending down and making him look feminine. But the blue eyes were hard, as they saw the challenge in the adult.

Adults always meant bad for him and his friends. They always had and always would mean bad.

"And you do know what would happen if everyone left to do their own business."

"The little teamwork we claim to have would disappear because everyone's attention would turn to egoistical things. The only way a group like ours should have a chance to work, is if everyone is ready to work and do what they are told. If they can't follow orders, it hurts all the people who are a part of it." Tala crossed his arms, staring into the golden eyes in front of him. Ian and Bryan had noticed the exchange and were moving towards the two fast.

"And yet you decide to go against orders and common sense, and risk what we have here?" The man crossed his arms too, trying to look superior to the teen. Unfortunately, the redhead had never had any respect towards anyone with higher ranks than himself, and for that reason he did not back down. He did not even think of backing down.

The blue eyes scanned over the man, the ice boring into the gold. "I give orders. I don't follow them. You expect to come here, after I have made sure everyone survived in rain and mountains, probably walking over a thousand kilometers, and think that I have no idea what I'm doing and no feeling of responsibility whatsoever?"

"You think that you have the right to tell me what to do, just because you are older? My experiences tells me that the adults' decisions only bring pain and problems, so don't come here and act like you have any right to tell me what to do when you don't even have the balls to kill a man. How should you be able to fight the battle that will probably come?" the wolf's voice sneered, low and angry and threatening, though his facade seems to stay calm and collected.

"And you should be able to kill anyone? … Wait, what does that have to do with-"

"Well, who of us is standing with an 11 kilo heavy machine gun?" Tala argued, raising it and ready to hit the man in the head. Not that he even considered it, but that was what it looked like, and the man to a step back before moving forward again as the gun rested on his arms once more.

"Who is able to kill and who is not has nothing to do with the ability to lead anyone. We don't have to go into a battle head-on. I would prefer to avoid a direct fight, but I'll guess haven't even considered that." The man stood over the teen, once again trying to be the dominating one. And once again, he did not succeed, but this time, it was another factor that forced him to back down. And it was a factor that few would even consider a problem.

But suddenly, the neko found himself facing a pair of dark, crimson eyes, staring up at him from somewhere too far down for one to really notice. And yet, he felt himself being glared down by those eyes, as the smallest member of the Blitzkrieg-boys set himself ready to fight. "Are you talking down to my captain," the small boy said, the words not even a real question. And those eyes... they were too hard for a boy his age.

Behind Tala, Bryan stood as a silent statue, and even just his figure was enough for one to back down. Ian, on the other hand, was too small to even be noticed if he stood behind his captain. So instead, to protect the fragile figure of the wolf, the slender arms and slender body, he went to the front. They had forgotten their own games to make sure nothing was going to harm the one and only they feared broken. For one of them, it was for his own protection too.

The adult had not been ready to be approached be a person about the size of his stomach, and his surprise was what forced him to take a step back this time. What did you do when a fourteen-year-old challenged you? The man could only find one thing to do. And that was shoving him back to his place. "Don't speak such of things you don't under-"

"I understand perfectly well," the purple-haired boy said, the crimson eyes showing exactly that understanding he claimed. "It is you who speak of things you don't know, and that is my captain. If you want to speak ill to him, you need to go through my fists first." And there really was that fire in his eyes. He truly was ready to die for the redhead.

"Let me finish speak-"

"I'm not going to respect you if you don't respect me, старый, толстый человек (fat, old man)," the boy answered, making Tala and one of the very few other Russians snicker. His words were so true it hurt, and it did not help when the neko's first reaction to those words was raising his hand to slap the boy back to his senses. The hand came flying...

But of course, Ian was not going down that easy. The boy ducked to the side and took a step, then sent his hand flying into the man's stomach with a surprising lot of force. The neko had not seen it coming, as he may have been able to stop the attack, but now, he was lying gasping on the rainful street. The preteen was about to kick the adult once again, and everything was so fast no-one got to react. No-one except Tala, who grabbed the younger and shoved him backwards with an apologetic look down to the man. He did not like him, but that did not mean he deserved pain.

"I apologize for my young friend," he said, the machine gun having been shoved into Bryan's arms to everyone's fear and despair. "Though I truly have no reason, I apologize for him. You shouldn't hit kids. So let this be a lesson for you." The wolf stared down at him with hate in his eyes, looking a little too much like his old self.

But Ian did not see this. If he had, he would have fled, terrified for himself and the coming state of his back. That even if Tala did not have his best weapon in his hand. "Мать твою! (Go to hell!)" the small one yelled instead, showing that he was at least as mad as his captain about having nearly gotten hit. Ian kicked out once again...

But felt his feet lift themselves off the ground. Looking behind him with confusion, he found that Bryan was about to throw him over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes, while the emerald's other arm dragged the outraged redhead away. For once, it was him who kept his calm, and he should get credit for that. "Calm down," he sneered at the redhead, while the crimson-eyed kid began struggling to get down again, hitting and biting his back.

Tala just turned and stared at him, an animal hiding behind human eyes. And yet, their leader was still able to close his eyes and calm down, taking breaths as he had taught his gray-haired companion. "We have to move to fight Boris soon," he mumbled, giving Bryan a wicked idea. In a mix of concern for his captain and just pure sadism, he turned to the people still staring after them, most of them uneasy about the situation.

And the emerald did not even bother telling him sorry, since he, nearly, only did this for his friend. "Well, you know that we soon have to attack Boris to get our remaining friends out. And the cats have some in prisons somewhere, don't they? Now, we all can use a gun... But a gun can't do everything, can it?" Ian stopped struggling from his back and snorted in disagreement. His punishment in doing so was to land on the ground.

But it seemed Tala had figured out where Bryan was heading. And he didn't like it, so he tore himself away from his friend and seemed ready to send a fist after the rain soaked, gray hair. "I refuse," he said, blue eyes piercing Bryan.

All the while, the people stared uncomprehending at the three, the rain still pouring down on them. But the weather and the redhead could not stop the emerald from continuing. "We need close-range weapons too, don't we? And the whip would be most effective in trained hands, and it is easy to make for us..."

"Why should we waste time and effort on freaking whips when we have hundreds of damn knives in this city?" Tala sneered, trying to free himself from the iron grip the pale hand held him in. No effect. That teen was too strong.

"Fewer accidents happen with whips than with knives. And you..."

"I know what you are saying, and I know why, but you don't get me to talk! Why not bother Ian instead? Or talk yourself? If I don't want to, then don't force me." The wolf's voice was emotionless, but in his eyes, there was a plea begging the emerald to let him continue his silence. Silence hurt, but it was far easier than speaking.

But Bryan had no mercy, his personality finally settled in a form many wouldn't enjoy. "Ian has nothing more he needs to come out with, which you are aware of. And I... Well, what do I have to regret?" He felt the redhead shrink in his grip, and the green eyes glistened with pleasure. Even his own friend's pain... "When I think back on when I shot at human targets for practice... I can still imagine the thrill I would have felt if I could. And..."

The redhead tried to drag himself free from his friend. "This is not the time..." he whispered. Though many were seeking shelter, a lot of people still watched them in their exchange.

"When I shot my mom... It is indescribable. That... joy of doing it, is clear even though did not feel it. And all the times I killed for Boris, I do not have a problem with either. And dealing his drugs, so he could invest in experiments he kept secret from Voltaire. And I helped him selling women too, if I remember correctly. And it's not like I was hurt when they injected those liquids in me. That only helps me..."

"If your time with Boris was so happy, then why don't you just go back to him," Tala growled, and pressed a pressure point to finally force the other one to let him free. The redhead stomped off, not looking back for a second. Also Ian disappeared to find the youngsters he had survived the desert with, trying not to show how terrifying he actually thought his friend. And like that, Bryan was left alone in the rain, shivering from his most recent memories of Boris.

And later that night, new words filled a white piece of paper: _Feelings begins to make sense to me, and though I still do not understand love, happiness along with many nameless feelings are no longer hurting me. But as I develop, I grow from one monster into another. And where the monster I was did not do anything for me, the new monster even finds pleasure in pushing my dearest friends over the edge. I really should never have been born..._

* * *

The word had crossed past the narrow halls and had seeped through the solid granite walls, and all now knew it. Even if none liked the news, as he had no friends in the building, all knew the grandson had awoken. His condition was unknown, and he hadn't been seen walking in the halls. But words could pass through anything, especially when the only thing the guards spoke of was this miracle, which had happened after over three months in a coma.

What you normally would call a permanent coma.

But the unseen center of this attention had not left his room ever since he had reached it and had passed out on the bed, exhausted, the day he had woken up. After that, he had used all his wake hours on 'training'. Whenever the clock on the wall told him with its bells that a new hour had passed, he stood up for the bed and walked, using his real arm to drag him around with the help from all furniture he passed. When he collapsed in exhaustion, he crawled to the bed again and tried to get used to the speed of his false arm while he waited for the clock to ring again.

He forced himself to walk past his limits. In the beginning, he nearly had given up. He collapsed after only having been standing for a few seconds, black spots clouding his mind, and his new arm had managed to bruise his body more than help it come back into the bed, since that metal-bucket seemed to be the only strong part left of him.

He had been so close to giving up and finally let life overcome him and lie there to die, finally admitting he could no more after twelve years of constant disappointments and struggles. Though he was once again left with the sweet bless of no memory, even he knew that the problems had always been from a source he had no control over. It had never been his own body, which disappointed him, and his physic had always been what had helped him through.

So close to giving up... But then, after having tried for three days, he was able to stand for ten seconds. Then, after eight more hours, he could move the metal-arm so slow that he could see it and stop it from hurting his new ribs.

From then on, the progress got more clear, and now, after seven weeks alone were the only thing stopping him from fighting himself back to living was eating the food brought and, the hardest and most ultimate challenge, going to the bathroom, he could move so steadily that he was ready to face the people in the building. People, where he did not know one who was his friend or something as small as an ally. And where one had nearly succeeded in killing him.

Though still seeking support from the wall and the tables and chairs, he found his way to the door and opened it with the robot-hand, just to make sure he really _had_ gotten as good with it as he had thought. Though still faster than the normal human hand, it closed around the handle with the same kind of gentleness and pushed down without even leaving the smallest mark on the dark wood. With a step, he left his secure, colorful room and was welcomed back into the black parts of the castle-like prison.

It took him many stairs and corners to reach his destination, but when he finally did, he was staring down at the inmates in the training room. At first, it surprised him that there was so few left. It seemed as though half of the teens left had disappeared... Then he came to understand that many things had changed. Boris was no longer playing nice.

There was no longer any division into blocks. Those who hadn't bladed before the killing of the cities and those who had played on a professional level now was together and the battles were everyone against everyone. If you hadn't gotten good since the beginning, you got escorted out, and no-one knew where you went. The training machines where always in use, but no longer was it the same person using them all the time. Everyone had one beybattle at least once in the hours they spent in training.

Kai watched as he felt even the mood having changed. Last time he had been there... it had not been for fun, but most were still able to keep a smile on their faces. Now... The faces he met were hollow, and the atmosphere was one he knew he remembered from the abbey. Only the strongest had the right to be, but at least, this kind of seriousness fit far better on the face of a teenager than on the face of a small boy.

The slate had intended going down to train, but lost his interest at the sight. Too many people that could make him feel weak in his state, and the feeling of being weak still scared him. It was not until this moment he realized someone stood behind him, and he turned, ready to fight... the problem was just that the fast turn made him lose the little balance he had regained, and he nearly fell down the stairs.

Fortunately, that fate was made impossible when a big hand got a grip on his shirt and held him upright until his feet could bear his body again. He looked up, and stared into the eyes of his grandfather... "Wah-i-ah..." the slate began, but then shut his mouth tightly at the sound of his voice. No way in hell he was going to speak if he could not say a word, and he let his question stay unsaid. _Why are you still here, grandfather? _Yet at the sheer sight of the man, a new feeling of furiousity heated up his mind.

But for some reason, he did not see the expression he had been sure he would. His grandfather did not look disgusted by his balance, or angry with him. And that was the only feelings Kai was able to connect to his grandfather, which was the reason why he refused to be convinced that it truly was concern he found in those eyes for a split-second.

And it did disappear, too, and disgust did come into play, yeah, as they watched each other. "You are out of bed, I see," the man said, and Kai just wished to tell him that he hadn't been _in _bed for three days straight now, having gotten so tired of it that he had slept in the chairs around the dinner table. But it was impossible, and so was it impossible for him to let out the steam of the indescribable anger he held towards the old man.

So Kai just turned from him and looked over the training teenagers, feeling Voltaire come over and lean over the railing beside him. "You see that things have changed. It's more like in the old days. I guess that Boris was unable to keep up the friendly strategy." Like you have not had a finger in it. "But I can't say I'm surprised. Were you...?" The old man halted his question, knowing Kai could not answer, and watched the young. He continued watching in hours.

It was first when the teenagers began leaving the room Voltaire regained his tongue, knowing that his grandson had ignored him for hours for one single reason. And he knew this just by looking at the silent figure of the slate-haired boy. "We have a computer. It's about the size of a watch, and would not be too much trouble for you." The slate did not turn his head in his direction. "It will not be by your own voice, but you will be able to communicate again..."

The duo-haired head snapped to the side, and fueled with new anger, both the seeing and unseeing eye glared at his last considered family-member. A computer. A _computer_! Did they not think that the arm already was enough? Or the metal they had replaced his bones with? Now they wanted him even less human, making him to speak through a computer! He probably would not even be able to speak Russian, when he was not even able to write that damn language! The hell he would let that happen! The violets were burning as they stared at the man.

But Voltaire did not seem to care. "I know what you think." A snort-like sound told what Kai thought of that. "But I do. After the arm and everything, you feel that I'm degrading you. But as it stands now, you cannot even say a single word right. It will be connected to your brain, so you can form any language you know. Do you not think it is best if you said ye-?"

Before the senior could finish the last word, Kai had turned and was walking as fast as his condition let him, trying to get away from his grandfather. How he hated this. How he hated having to wake up again. Why could he not just die? Why could he not just have slept peacefully away into the death instead of having woken from a coma only a miracle could have helped him wake from? Or why could Maxim's plan not just have worked, so he did not have to have lied in a coma for months?

He did not notice what he met. He did not notice who he passed. No, the next thing he noticed was being stopped by another hand from falling over once again, since his body was getting exhausted. And though about to say thanks, he stopped before even remembering that the word thanks would be impossible for him to say.

Because the person grabbing him seemed to be one of the few people he felt less need to talk to than his grandfather, and he felt regret leaving the old man just by staring up at the bearded face of the Russian soldier who had tried to murder him, and who was now looking at him with quite a bit awkwardness.

Maxim.

"_Y-y-_..." Kai tried to sneer, but to no-one's surprise, it was not possible. Instead, he just sent a glare, and though not able to see right with one eye, it was enough for the soldier to shrink a little and look away. It seemed he did not know what to say, and the slate just wished he did not say anything. Not even sorry. Nothing. Because the teen knew the soldier had meant him to die, and only regretted doing it because he had made another person a cripple.

And yet, he tried to form those words. "I... I am so-"

_Crack_.

The metal-arm had found some weird way to fly up and connect to the man's face, and blood began covering the silver-looking metal as they both fell to the floor. The slate because the muscles in his legs had gotten so tired he needed a short break, Maxim because a robot was able to hit with at least ten times the force of a human being. There was a wheezing sound, and the man rolled over, covering the broken nose with his hand, barely conscious.

Kai panted heavily, looking down at the blood-covered arm. It reacted more to his feelings than he liked, which meant he still had a lot of training to do. Then, the violets looked over at the uniformed man. The red liquid seemed to be covering a great deal of the floor, and the pool was still increasing. He heard footsteps from the other end of the hall, and forced his exhausted head upwards to see Boris, some guards and... Katyenka?

At the sight of her hateful face, a glimpse of the face of a quite skinny, old man standing, smiling widely beside a dog, pushed itself to the surface of his mind. As fast as it had come, it disappeared, but he had captured that face... and though he did not know the man, and the dog scared him shitless, he felt secure and safe in this hell.

Katyenka helped Maxim back to his feet and helped him hold his head backwards to keep the nosebleed from getting even worse. By the slate, Boris was, but as soon as the man touched him, Kai used the metal-hand to gently push him away... which caused Boris to nearly lose his balance. As about half the group followed Maxim and Katyenka to the infirmary, Boris watched as the teenager fought the hard fight of getting back on his feet alone.

"What was that about?"

When he finally had gotten to his feet, Kai just stared at Boris with a raised eyebrow. You seriously expect me to answer? The slate turned away from the man, and when he felt the hand around his real shoulder, the used his false hand to shove the man away once again. His day was already bad enough, and he decided his adventures had been enough for today...

Unfortunately, he didn't know that the people in the cells had been moved around, and that he had to walk past Emily and Miguel to get up to his room. If he had known, he would have done everything to find a way around them. Now, he woke up from his thoughts by the sound of her voice, but since he already knew the closest one he had to a friend in the building was his grandfather, whom he had thought gone, he was not surprised by her words.

"Oh, so the great Kai Hiwatari finally decides to show himself in public, does he?" Slowly, Kai turned his head. Emily and Miguel were neighbors, and both of them glared at him, Emily more furious than her partner. But the slate remembered this time that he was unable to answer her. And he did not want to glare at them. For some reason, he did not hate them. So the violet eyes just watched them dully, his half-blind eye making them look slightly fussy.

"Can't see anything wrong with you. Did you seriously lie in a coma for five months?" At least Miguel _tried_ to sound friendly. But his contempt did not quite disappear from his voice, and the slate's shirt made it impossible for them to see his damaged up arm. And his other disabilities were of course hidden by either his skin and flesh or his silence.

But though his silence hid what, to him, was his most embarrassing injury, it also seemed like he was provoking the two with his silence. Which he would have done, if it was not because he was so tired from his trip and emotionally down after waking from the coma. "Well, did you, or is it just a rumor?" Miguel tried once again, and slowly, all the sad feelings welling up inside the slate began culminating and coming to the surface...

But he was not the only one getting angry, and Emily spoke again. "Did the cat eat your tongue?" No, a former Russian soldier did... "I'm sorry, but I seriously can't believe you got attacked by a machine. Not when it is _you_ they talk about." Though claiming she did not believe it, she still smirked at the thought. All the while, Kai got even more problems with his temper. "Well, did the cat really eat that tongue, or are you just, as always, too-"

Once again, the hand reacted from his feelings before he commanded it to, and the metal slammed against one of the bars near the girl's head, revealing the one visible injury he had gotten. Both of their eyes widened at the sight of the false hand, but what terrified them even more that the hand which had bent the metal-bar was what came next.

"D-do-... don-'t... t-ta-... talk... ab-out th... thihnhs... y-you don... kno."

Finally realizing that the rumor really was the sad truth, and that it was not filling them with the joy they had thought it would when it was confirmed, they backed away from him. The slate just watched them once again, and he felt a sob hiding in his throat. He could not bear their looks. He could not. He knew he would never be able to face them after this, not when they knew that... that...

He fought the sob and the feelings away as he always had done it. And he removed the robot-hand from the now injured bar, the sound of the machine screaming after him as he finally could force himself to leave them, and walk alone, as he always had and always would. He was trapped away from everyone, and his inability to talk did not help him cure the sickness alone had become to him.

Because though not being lonely, and though not being hurt emotionally by the fact that he was alone, it had never hurt more for him to know. He was alone. But he continued his path to the top of the tower in silence and solitude, to his very own comfortable prison, where he would sit until he once again was strong enough to face the world. A world, where they all just wished him death.

And it would be by the screaming of that metal-arm he would fall asleep with the constant reminder of his weakness.

* * *

Okay, to tell the truth, this was _not_ how I intended this chapter. It is mostly Bryan's part that went wrong, since I wanted it to be kind of an oh-so-happy-and-joy-reunion-thingy, but just as Bryan was supposed to drag them off and they were supposed to cheer up, I settled Bryan's personality for this moment of time. And in doing so, the whole scene changed, and what should be the counterpart of Kai's depressed situation backfired.

You see, I knew Kai's scenes would be kind of sad, so I had to do something to make the chapter less depressed. It just did not really happen, and I apologize for this, since Tala is pretty mad and Ian pretty scared of Bryan, making Bryan situation that much more complicated too...

Anyway, I hope the ending was not too... well, I think I may have overdone it a little, but I let you decide that.

Enjoy in joy ^^


	21. Reunion with an old weapon

A new update! Yaaay! I just love this story, but I got to say, this chapter was tricky.

I spent a day in the hospital and have seen the doctor two times in one week because I have pain in the bottom of the right side of my stomach. The pain I feel is similar to (sorry boys, you can't understand) the pain I normally feel when I have my menstruation. So I made the first scene on pills to get rid of the pain and nausea, four pills for the pain, one of the nausea. The problem with them was that at first I got extremely drowsy and tired, then got hyperactive. That is two states I can't write in.

Kai's scene, I wrote most of it the day after I had a surgery against this pain (ten days after the pain began). If parts of it make no scene, the morphine may still have had its effect. I have to admit, being high on morphine half an hour after the surgery and being driven through the white halls of the hospital in my bed at high speed because the person taking me back to my room was a nice, young man with a fast, little machine is the best thing I have tried until now.

Disclaimer: Look at former chapters, I'm tired of disclaimers. (Same goes for warnings)

Review:

Gud: The same as always, my friend ^^

Cherry-Toxic: Nearly wrote phoenix, so if I do in the future, please bear with me ;) As always, your review gave me the want to write, and that was actually what made me force myself to write the beginning. It was slow still, but at least I was writing... Though I stopped pretty fast again before inspiration caught up to me. But commenting on everything would be a pain, because you always write a hell of a lot (and I love you for it!), so I will just tell you I'm happy you liked last chapter... and that I probably do love tormenting Kai as much as you do ;) At least, it makes me happy to see my faves in pain, so I makes sure to cause them a lot of pain ^^ (Btw, hope you mouth gets better, my dad has gotten a brace (it is quite funny, but it hurts him a bit), so he can't speak (or eat), either.)

Blah blah, blahblahblah blah ^^ BLAH! (No idea why I wrote that...)(Have noticed how much I have in parentheses?)

* * *

Reunion with an old weapon

* * *

The rain was stopping, but that did not change the fact that everyone was soaked. A hot bath was the only thing they wanted to have, but like the electricity, the water in the city was closed. So instead, people undressed in their homes by advice of the adults and packed themselves up in blankets after hanging up the soaked clothes. The warmth came back to their body fast, and people got on with their lives, despite two different groups planning for them to fight.

One of these groups, though, was bottled up with another concern. So at the moment, they did not plan how to throw Voltaire and, most of all, Boris off their thrones. Ian sat on the couch, staring out of the dark window, to the dark road, the rain still falling in buckets. Bryan, on the other hand, sat by his chessboard in the other room, his concern not visible on either face or body. But somehow... somewhere... his conscience felt bad.

The reason was simple. It had been two days, two whole _days_, where the rain had stopped briefly every once in a while. And in these two days, they had seen no sign of their redheaded captain. After he had left in them, after the fight, he had just... gone. And Bryan was afraid, somewhere, that he had caused his captain to do stupid things. He _had_ mentioned the old Tala, and that person was one their house had always feared they would meet again.

Their concern had to wait for even longer than feared, as he did not show up that day. Bryan sat by the chessboard the whole night, the rain outside stopping about halfway through the night. But he spent it sleepless, hearing Ian's light snoring in the couch. None of them moved from their spots, except when the small one rose to find some food. He also set it in front of the emerald, even if he knew his friend had put himself too much in the game to flee from the world. He did eat, but that was without his eyes moving off the board.

The fourth day, though, he could sit there no longer. His angst brought him to rise from the floor, kick the board through the room so it broke in two and turn around to drive the BMW. Ian followed also then, having a feeling of responsibility, even though he was the younger of the two. When Bryan had been... different... he had been unable to take good care of himself, so the purple-haired boy was more or less used to this.

Bryan drove for three hours straight, the pedal push all the way down. Ian enjoyed it, his laughter helping on the bad killing-spree-mood Bryan suffered from. The emerald knew his companion had always loved cars, but being so young when they were in the abbey, he never learned to drive properly. But this exact kind of car was his absolute favorite, the car of the gods he had drooled over in magazines and dreamed of owning.

When they finally stopped, the smaller had cooled his temper so much down, that Bryan went into the house only smacking the first door behind him. The rest of the doors were simply let open. But Ian decided he did not want to ruin his good mood by being near the emerald, so he did something different. He stayed outside and cleaned the car, the bad treatment of Bryan obvious on the mud and dirt smudging the perfect, green, polished surface.

Inside the apartment, the emerald was looking for something to get his mind off the world and his beloved captain's absence, not caring that the rain started again and soaked his captain, and his finger felt over every back of the French books on the bookshelf he already had discarded in his mind. Not one of them interested him, so he took the first, the best book and opened it, without noticing the title saying; _the collection of none-love poems_.

On the first page was the words _I have the words in my power, cause everything else slips – author's note_. The writing was handwritten, and the gray eyebrows furrowed. He turned the first pages and looked at the title of the 'chapter'. _Rain_. Ironic, when you looked out of the window and saw the water pour down from the skies and soak the world once again. He felt he had not seen so much rain in so few days. On the first page head began reading:

_A single drop of rain falls  
Soon to be followed by hundreds  
Soaking the trees, the leaves, the animals  
The humans  
Each drop so insignificant and unimportant  
Making the colors go bland  
The airs go cold  
The sorrow grow  
As the rain keeps kids from playing  
Keeps the old from taking their walk  
And the homeless freeze  
In the rain, the darkness flows  
It overthrows the sun's shine  
Destroys the dreams  
Darkens the shining jewelry  
And make the human shadows, dead and living, grow  
In the rain, all is equal  
And no-one existing  
The rich and the poor  
It soaks all  
The seeds of future, and relics of past  
A single drop of rain falls  
The first of the world's tears_

Though it was beautiful words, the letters seemed dull to the gray-haired teenager. He was just about to close the book, but immediately in just thinking the thoughts, he felt himself get more upset, and he turned the page to a much more interesting poem for him. The brilliant, green eyes slowly made their way to the bottom, as he slowed down his reading-speed to feel the effect of the poem a bit more:

_Rain drops as tears from the sky  
I hate rain  
Not because of the cold or insignificance each drip have  
But because of the symbol of tears  
Empty fields of grass pollutes me  
Hiding the truth in beauty and trash between straws  
The trash is all over those fields  
Like my outside, the inside is hidden by beauty  
They claim I'm beautiful  
Long since I've heard such nonsense  
I'm a killer  
A killer of both bodies and mind  
I'm dead myself, though I never admit  
And I died for no-one  
Left to empty fields of grass_

It was as though it was a continuance from the last poem, but he could not turn the page to see how the mood in the book got even more depressed. He heard the door open and close, but just thought it was Ian who came inside until he heard different, heavier and... more... Tala's footsteps. His eyes shot up and turned to the doorway, and there Tala stood, his dirty, white clothes soaked, his eyes slightly angry, and... a whip lying in his belt.

He leaned against the frame of the door, the blue eyes watching as his friend let the book fall to the floor in a good kind of surprise. And as he nearly ran over to the door, he did something he had never done before. Where he had pushed Tala away before, though not meaning to, he now took him and his smaller teammate into an embrace. "I'm so, so sorry, Tala," he whispered to them, though his apologize also was to the smallest of their group.

"'miss Spence," Ian suddenly mumbled, and Bryan moved backwards at his words, not really wanting to be so close to anyone. Other than Hillary, because he had a very lot of fun toying with her. But this kind of hug was... different... because there were... feelings. He felt something for these people, so doing close things with them seemed stronger... And he was quite sure he did not like it.

"He died," Bryan said, and Ian just nodded at his words. Of course he was dead if he was not with them. Anything else would wrong. But the green eyes once again fell on the whip in the belt of the redhead's, and his gray eyebrow rose. At the sight of his friend, and the face his friend made, Tala frowned again, his eyes becoming... evil. No other word could describe what came into his eyes, but the emerald was lucky enough not to notice. "Why the whip?"

"I will follow your advice and teach them the use, but I will _not_ answer questions of any kind," the redhead said firmly, the blue eyes narrowing slightly at his words. "Cause you are right in what you are saying. Fewer accidents happen when amateurs use whips instead of knives. Though I expect none of you wish to use the whip?"

"Good thinking, pal," Ian said, grinning, despite that the redhead was making him so very nervous. "But you have been away for so long... Are you hungry? … Of course we only have that disgusting can food, but it is better than nothing. What were you doing, anyway?" The only question interesting the emerald was the last, but he still moved out in the not-working kitchen to find him food. There was no electricity, so they had no chance of heating the food when it rained outside.

He still listened to the conversation as he opened a can with sausages. The good thing about can food is that you can use it for years. In the other room, he heard Tala answer the questions the smaller had thrown at him: "No, I am not really hungry." That did not stop the emerald from getting a sad meal of the sausages and a bit of corns and peas from other cans. "I just had to make a whip, but since the weather did not let me make leather, I had to use bark."

"Oh, okay..." Bryan entered the room to see that Ian having sat down on the couch while Tala took off the soaked, dirty clothes in the middle of the floor. "Did not know you could use that material for... you know... That weapon," Ian continued, and the awkwardness began to grow. That weapon... That weapon the redhead he thrown over all of their backs, and they were lucky they had come out with their sanity more or less in check. Of course, Bryan was different.

"I have some food to you. I'm not taking no for an answer, Tala." Their captain had nothing else than his underwear on, but that did not take away any of their stubbornness. Neither the one nor the other.

"I said I wasn't hungry." Tala crossed his arms, not caring that this kind of fighting over food merely was childish stubbornness. But they had never been children, so he felt he had the right to be like this when he wanted to.

"I heard no such thing." Bryan took the plate forward, the disgusting meal coming closer to the stomach supposed to eat it.

"Then listen harder." The redhead took a step backwards, as if the distance between him and the plate mattered for their argument. He nearly tripped over a chair in the process.

"I only hear what..." But they did not hear what he only heard. Not even done with the sentence, a girly scream was heard. All eyes turned to the doorway, where Xiu stood with her hands covering her eyes, while Hillary just stared wide-eyed at the redhead in his underpants. Tala just began grinning, Ian soon coming along, while Bryan just watched the two girls with interest, not really understanding what was so bad that Xiu had to scream over it.

The redhead just enjoyed it, getting a great laugh to ruin the half-bad mood there had been in the house ever since he had disappeared. "Seeing anything you like?" he asked, and Xiu whimpered and blushed even more than before, her hands looking as though they tried to push her eyes out on the other side of her head. But Tala decided to be nice to them, and as Hillary fought her eyes away, he found a blanket to wrap around himself. "Now you can look."

His voice was soft and nice. So soft that Ian narrowed his eyes as he watched his, and he noticed the smallest blush on his captain's face as the redhead sat down beside the smaller member of his team. Then, the crimson eyes of the youngest in the room turned from his captain to Xiu just as Bryan forced the plate with sausages on the redhead. The too-innocent-for-Ian's-taste Chinese girl slowly took the hands away from her eyes. "I am sorry, Tala," she mumbled.

"No need." The redhead... _smiled_… in a special way. "I am the one who should say sorry. First, I fly away without even notifying you, then when I come home I run off without even saying hello..." His voice and face got sad... and it looked like he even _meant_ it... "I hope you will forgive me for my bad deeds."

"Of course I can," Xiu mumbled, her eyes on the ground as she still blushed in a deep red color. They did not touch each other... They did not have to as they spoke. And all the while, Hillary moved over to the emerald to have her arm around him. And Ian watched as no words were spoken between those two, but a kiss on her cheek and the arm around his waist was all that really was between them. Xiu and Tala continued to speak, at least one meters distance between them. And Ian saw a difference of the pairs.

He watched, and watched for long, before he finally found out what it was. Why they were different. It was in their faces. Hillary's was light and bound to her partner, her eyes shining with happiness as she watched her partner. But Bryan's was indifferent, a small smile on his face and nothing in his eyes. Xiu was constantly blushing, and her eyes did not seem to be able to stay still at any time. And Tala...

His face was indifferent. No smile, no twitching nose, little blinking, only moment on his lips when he spoke and in his hair when he turned his head. And his eyes were dark and suffering, as they always were when he forgot to show an expression that made him seem cheerful, playful, and happy. But his words were softer that the colored crown of the rose, his voice silky as if he was using it to wrap around a weak, hurt bird like as blanket.

And every time his eyes touched the pale skin of her face of the dirty fabric of her clothes, the darkness vanished, and left was a light so bright it erased all the scars from his past and all fear of the present things that still suffered from past deeds. A newborn star found its way into his eyes when they touched her. As though she, by just being near him, could make all the wrongs right and restore his broken, torn, tormented and impure soul into what it was supposed to.

It took time for the small to understand what it was. As he watched their faces. But then, after an hour of talking and no physical interaction from the redhead and Chinese, and no talking and only physical interaction from the emerald and brunette, he understood. Hillary was obsessed, Bryan not caring. Xiu insecure of herself and her feelings, but sure of the one thing that meant something. She loved her redhead, but was not ready to say the words. And for the first time in his free life, Tala had found one he was ready to give his all to.

* * *

Life had never seemed to have had been harder. Even coming up from bed every morning was a challenge he nearly could not bear face. And now that his body was slowly getting the strength back, the challenge became more and more a psychological problem than a physical restraint. Now that most of the body he had known was back, he had nothing to live for. Before, it was the fight to get back his strength that became the goal of getting out of bed.

Now he had nothing to work for.

The metal-arm still was a problem. It reacted more to his anger than to his brain, and ever since he had woken up, he had had problems with his temper. And since he had just been lying in a coma for months and practically slept, he could see absolutely _no _reason for the anger. Yet every time he met a human being, especially his grandfather and Boris, his mind began boiling. If he had been antisocial before, it was nothing compared to his feelings now.

This particular morning, Kai stared up at the ceiling, trying to convince himself that he had a reason to go down to the kitchen and find his breakfast. Using the robot-hand as little as possible to strengthen what he considered his actual body, he forced himself to sit up, instinctively knowing he had to live on no matter what.

He took the metal-hand up to his face and let it go through his hair, taking the chance to see how much damage it was doing on himself. Nothing. Mostly, when he was alone, he was able to control it even better than a normal arm. But since it reacted when his emotions got heated, and his emotions got heated when he was with people. They did not see his control. They did not see how well he was doing. They only saw what they thought was a stable teen who had gotten unstable after he miraculously woke up from his five months of coma.

He felt no lust to go down and live, but his body moved on its own to keep him alive. He ended in the kitchen where he had been working so much time ago, not seeming to notice the many people working as he went in to the pantry and found what interested him. But on his way out, he bumped in to one of the drawers, and something fell out of his pocket. Something he had forgotten. Something that sent him back to the time before the problems.

It was his black beyblade. He had totally forgotten it ever being there, too caught up in his own misery and own problems. It seemed surreal that he had forgotten such a big part of his life, something that he remembered always to have been his everything. To him, it was as if the world was going in slow-motion. As if the time stood still as he squatted down and used the metal-arm to pick up the small object.

_Want help, little weakling?_

He nearly crushed the blade at the sound of the voice, the robot reacting to the shock in his brain. He closed his eyes and tried to remember the voice. He could not decide the gender, as if it was two people's voice. The hand he did not hold the blade was lifted up to scratch his good, itching eye without himself noticing. As he opened the bad eye, he jumped backwards in surprise. Despite the light in the pantry, he had seen nothing but blackness.

Though still only using the bad eye, he could see when he got back into the kitchen and was lying on the floor with everyone staring at him. His good arm was still covering the good eye, but the kitchen was merely slightly blurred and a little darker than it should be. He did not really know why he was sitting on the floor, but he had dropped the blade in the process of getting there. So the slate pushed the surprise of total blindness away for one thing.

A light began burning in his eyes, a light of stubbornness and lust. And even though it was towards the black blade of pain that had caused nothing but trouble for all, it was not the thought of Black Dranzer that gave him back his life. It was the spinning top, the thought of the beyblade, and it could have been a blade with or even without a bitbeast that could give him that light. He got back to his feet and took up the blade again.

And there, he made a vow to himself. As he stood with that thing in his hand, he decided he would blade again. And it would not be for his Grandfather. It would not be for Boris. Nor his friends that he had betrayed once again. For the first time, he would play totally for himself...

_You _always _played for yourself._

He knew the voice, but not where from. He felt a presence near his consciousness, poking at him. For the first few moments, Kai feared he was beginning to hear voices. But since there was no obvious evidence that it was his sanity that suffered, the slate meant it had to be something different. Also the fact the he felt something alien seeming to try and come into his mind, he felt even surer that it was not him, who was wrong.

"Ah-I..." At the speed of light, his mouth shut again, his inability to talk once again stopping him. Instead, he took the conclusion that since the thing spoke to him in his mind; he could speak back that way. I never played for myself, he declared, and received a snicker from the voice. With a small sigh, he leaned against the wall of the kitchen, feeling the beginning of an argument that seemed ridiculous when your opponent seemed not to have a face.

_Oh, no, that is just what you think. I agree, Voltaire and Boris pulled you in to it, but not soon after, you began to like this little plastic-thing, and you did not only fight for perfection for Voltaire. No, you have always been an egoist._

Have not. Kai felt the anger in him, and the metal-hand flew into the shelves standing beside him. It was only by luck that the beyblade in the hand did not break from the pressure. But the voice continued speaking to him.

_If that is the truth you want to believe, so be it. But that is not what I wished to speak with you about. I want to make a deal... I do not know how much you know of me, but my way of working with people is by going in to their minds. It never has been a problem, controlling them, using them for myself, but you... _

_The first time I felt your hand on me, I did not feel you different. You had the same amount of self-respect and self mastery as an adult, despite your young age, but I had no problem controlling you. And it ended up with you destroying most of the Abbey. But the next time I felt you, I felt something strange. I did not overtake you... You _agreed _to be overtaken. You did not fear me or my power, but wanted me, and as I used you to make my power greater, you had fun with me. But as soon as your little friends came, you decided to push me away... and was strong enough to._

The violet eyes settled on the blade in his hand. So this voice was... It was so obvious that it was, but bitbeasts did not speak to their masters... At least she did not. Or had never done, at least. You are as sick as I imagined, he said, his mind still trying to understand that he was talking to a bitbeast, and that even none other than Black Dranzer.

_No. I just live the way my first and true master taught, instead of those annoying morons like Boris that have haunted me for the last ninety years. You have a lot of the same characteristics as my master, but you are not nearly as great as he was. Sadly, he was a human, and unlike me, he could not defy the laws of nature. But this was not my intention, and I will go back to where I was. _

_You interest me. You are the only human I have met which can push me out. But that also means I need your permission to go in to your mind. I have many, many offers, and I already have given you one. If I had not told you what my False Father and his surprisingly pure, white victim told you when you visited them, you would never had opened your eyes. Now, there still is so much more I can give you. _

_There are memories that they have sealed away from you, abilities you have lost, I would even help you find my False Mother, if you agree to let me in. I want in to your head; I want to be able to use your body. I want to live, and with you as my current keeper, I cannot do that. So, I offer my help for your mind. You nearly opens yourself when you beyblade, and I feel how you want me, _wish _me, unlike anyone else, but I need your permission._

Too much information. It seemed the evil bitbeast he had in his metal-claws was very talkative, but if that was the cause, he could not understand why it had kept quiet for so long. But it was a good trick, since the many words were able to confuse him. But instead of deciding on the important matter of giving in to the bitbeast, he concentrated on the question he wanted answered first. How come you never spoke with me before?

_It was impossible. For so long, I have wanted to ask you the question of making a deal with me, but it requires a bond. And we did not have one before I stayed by your side throughout the months of coma, where I helped you out. The phoenix can speak with you, too, but she follows the rules. And the rules are a vow of silence towards your carrier, or you are said to be an evil bitbeast. Or the higher powers believe we can manipulate the human mind with words._

The slate just nodded. It did not fit into his mindset, but he had the feeling he already knew some information that fit with this piece made him sure that the bitbeast told him the truth. And through that, despite the words have been said should have made him more cautious, he decided to follow the path the black bitbeast offered. I want Dranzer back, and I want my memories back. How do I do this? he asked, not sharing his last thought with the bitbeast.

The thought where he promised to throw out the black blade as soon as he had his own bitbeast back.

_It is simple. Find a beystadium and open up. Fire me, and let me spin. You use me, so I can use you. Then, I will show you what happened to you in the past, and eventually guide you to your little, red bird that you love so much. If I am satisfied with you, I may even go in to your mind and give you back your voice. But only if you deserve it._

Once again, the slate nodded. With a lazy movement, he moved out of the kitchen, ignoring the many people staring at him. He had a beystadium in his own room, and that was good enough for him if he would just have to spin the blade. It did not take long before the half-broken teen was back in the room, getting ready for blading.

He stood as he normally did, placed the blade in the launcher and got ready. Counting in his head, he ripped the cord out of the launcher... and the blade dropped dead on the floor. He stared. He could not be sure, but he would guess that not even in his youngest age, he had been _that_ bad. Then the violet eyes sought down to the metal-hand, in where the launcher was, and his eyes widened in realization and shock.

There were cracks in the launcher. It was only by luck it had not gotten totally destroyed by the force the metal-hand had put upon it, but it was unusable. He could not even spin a blade. The false arm, which had had exactly the purpose of making him still able to blade, could not handle Kai's excitement. It ended up using too much power.

Kai stared down at the arm for whole ten minutes, trying to comprehend the new challenge he was facing. He had to begin blading again, it was his life... He had to.

He _had_ to do it.

In anger, the metal-hand crushed the launcher, and he threw the small bits at the walls with an angry scream. Then, he stomped over to the drawers in the corner of the room, took one out and pulled up a new launcher. Standing ready again, he fired the blade once more, but with even worse effect than the first time. But he did not stop for that reason. He was going to blade again, no matter what anyone was going to say, think or do.

No matter what, he would succeed in everything he decided to do.

* * *

The rain finally stopped, and now they just prayed for it to stay away. The whole group had been collected to stand outside, Tala having announced he had something to share. This was one of the other times where he had gotten a fever, his trip in the wild in the heavy rain not having been good for his health. Still, he was standing, his tall, slender figure looking proudly at the many people in his front. As always when he called for a meeting, it began in silence.

But he knew the silence would not last already when he had been making his own whip in the forest. It was there he had decided he would call them together, to teach them his darkest ability. For his ability with the whip was even darker than his ability to kill without thinking twice. But he pushed the thoughts and his own fear for the weapon away, for the cause of the greater good. This was the only way to push Voltaire, and especially Boris, off the throne.

And if he was lucky, he would be able to kill the two with his own, bare hand. Or, just to make it sweetly ironic, a flick of his whip. It would be no problem killing like that. Not when it was them...

Once again, he had to push his thoughts away, and with the whip in his hand, the blue eyes turned to the ones standing by the border of the group in front of him. Ian and Bryan stood leaning against the walls of buildings, both looking like they were bored, but he sensed the tenseness. Another thing he pushed away, since it was something that hurt, and finally, he began speaking, his voice as always unquestionable and scarily convincing.

"Finally, we are together! Finally, I have everything I need! Finally, my young friend, Ian, is by my side, and finally, I am ready to go to war. I know most of you have come to believe we are safe, and that you do not have to worry about anything! I agree with the last. You do not have to worry. Not for the first long time. But you are not safe.

The only reason we can know we are safe and become safe, is, if the shadow standing over us is removed. I am, of course, talking about Voltaire and Boris, because they will find us, and it will be soon!

Despite my own personal grudges and bad memories of those two, and especially Boris for my part, I know I am not alone with my feelings. And you know why? Because I was locked up alongside most of these people that I am looking upon now! And though I did not feel the pain they put on the rest of you, my neko-jin friends, I know you have lost many comrades, and that many comrades suffer in the hands of Boris!"

Sadness was put upon the faces of the listeners, the truth hurting just as much now as when the events happened. No eyes were set upon the redhead now, the spell of his words having caught them all, and his lifted his arms into the air and closed his eyes. "I know many of you are ready to stay here." The soft words were nothing but whispers, caught by the wind and carried to the ears of his followers. "I know you fear the fight, and that your feeling of safety makes it even harder for you to want to get out and look for the tormentors.

But I know if none want to come with me, I will go alone, hunt them down, and stop them. Of course, for myself. For my pride, for my life, for my own personal reasons and for my living friends. But even more important for me than myself... I will do it for Spencer, who did not survive long enough to see the pain Boris once again set into our lives.

So I ask for you, if you can fight only for yourself, you are welcome! But if you doubt or fear, if something halts you, think of the ones you lost! If you were blessed with parents, fight for them! Fight for your brothers! Sisters! Friends! Anyone worth it! Show them that you loved them, and love them still! And show them that you are ready to even die in their memory!

Are you ready to follow me?"

His arms fell, and when they did, the crowd even cheered for him. Even the neko-jin adults were moved, despite most of them not being very fond of the superior-hating redhead. He spoke with emotion, and made everyone feel like they were his equal. And when he saw these equals cheer him on, he grinned, a true smile settled on his face. "That was more cheers than I could even dream of; when you consider the so nice conditions we have here, eh?"

Sticking out his tongue, he turned around and looked at the setup behind him, a wood-figure that was shaped to look like a man. The voices of the people behind him stopped, and he took the whip out of his belt and caressed it out of old habit. "You should all have mastered the gun at this point. That means you have can use a long-range-weapon, but do not have any abilities to stop a man when he has gotten too close. Short-range. And as my friend Bryan was kind enough to remind me, a lot of accidents tends to happen when amateurs carries knives.

For that reason, I will offer you the guidance to learn a different weapon, which when mastered are far more effective than a knife. I will show you what a whip can do, and you will have to be ready to kill if you go to the fight. That is a weakness of the whip. It is not supposed to kill." He had moved to the side, so he stood about ten feet from the wood-figure. But with a flick of his hand, the cord flew through the air and was wrapped around the neck of the false man, and it tightened dangerously hard around it. People gasped in surprise of his action.

"Of course, it is more than able to do so in the wrong hands." Another movement of his hand, and it loosened again, another again, and it flew around the wooden man's legs. "It works better to immobilize your enemy, and it can be done fast from this point." Staring with awe, the watchers saw how one of the legs broke off when he tightened the cord. "I won't force you to learn, but it often happens that a person not totally comfortable with a knife ending up killing their own friends by mistake.

The knife is used far more to killing off than to stop the enemy, and is not keeping the enemy away as effectively as a whip would. A whips range is bigger, but can become smaller in seconds if you do not see your enemy before it seems too late." He showed this by suddenly jump closer to the still-standing wood-figure and taking the end of the cord. It hit the wood-figure's ribcage and soared over it. "You will have the chance to learn both the whip and the knife. Bryan takes care of the ones wanting to learn the knife. And the neko's can decide for themselves. I have seen many swords in your ranks."

Without another word, he turned around and went for his two companions, and together, they went to their apartment in silence. But as soon they got inside, the redhead collapsed on the couch and buried his face in his hands. "I feel like an idiot. It was going so well, but then I showed them that god damned whip, and now I have probably scared them all off. They probably think badly of my because of that thing!" He took his head up again and threw the whip away from his belt.

"Stay calm, Tala, it went well," Ian promised and sat down beside his friend while Bryan was taking his chessboard and chess pieces in to the room so he could be with them without being bored. The emerald acted as if his captain was not being extremely depressed at the moment, but Ian was with him, so Bryan felt he was not needed.

"_Am_ calm," the redhead sneered, making the smaller winch. An old habit that he and Spencer had had, whenever Tala raised his voice in such a matter. And the redhead knew this, which meant that when he forced the calmness he claimed in to his mind and made one of his false smiles. "I am sorry, Ian. I just felt I did something wrong and ruined our chances. No matter what, I will move back towards the castle and kill Boris, but if we have them with us..."

"I know that, but it is not that bad. You always say the right thing in these situations. I am sure it is just because you are so... uncomfortable with the weapon that you used, so you feel you lost control over the situation." Neither of his friends told the redhead how every slash of that whip had forced shivers down their spines. Even Bryan had felt it, and it had brought the memories of his first time in the Abbey back into his mind.

The redhead sighed and nodded to his friend's words. "I hope so." Still, the redhead was smiling, and the smaller one did not see that it was forced upon his face. "Bryan." The gray-haired looked up with surprise when Tala spoke with him. "Before you begin, may I join in a game?" A small tugging was in the corners of the emerald's lips, and this made the smile of the redhead's face true and a smirk grew on the smaller one's.

Avoiding their eyes because he did not really want to smile at them or see them smile, the emerald nodded too. "Sure, just sit down." He was sitting on the floor, as always, as if he had never heard of tables or such weird things. The wolf already knew he would never win. Of the three in the room, he was the one with the lowest IQ, but the only one of them, who was actually able to act normally around people for a longer amount of time.

Even though he knew he could never win, the fight was long, and all three of them did not notice they had gotten company before Bryan finally took the last piece to kill off the king. When he looked up, the emerald noticed the figure in the door-frame and stood, anger pulsating in every one of his movements.

Tala turned his head and understood why Bryan immediately reacted with anger – it was the same adult neko that had argued with them when the wolf had left for Ian and come back with him. Using his hand to tell the emerald to try and stay calm, Tala raised an eyebrow. "Why are you here and for how long have you been?"

The neko slowly moved in to the room, keeping an eye on the emerald like a cat keeps an eye on a big, threatening, nasty dog. Though having seen Tala's silent command, Bryan did not look like he was going to back down, and he stared unblinkingly at the man, looking ready to kill. "I have been watching for most of the game. It was actually quite exciting, so I did not want to stop you. You all are smarter than I thought." Bryan snorted. "Guess you cannot judge the dog on the fur." Another snort. "I came to say sorry." New snort.

The redhead tried to hide his amusement at the sound of his teammate, not having expected anything else, but made a mask of seriousness and contempt towards the man. "Say sorry? For what?" The blue eyes were icy, despite the fact that he was having a lot of fun at the moment. He felt nothing bad for the man, as long as he went the right way, and he had never gotten the man's name. Bryan, on the other hand, had consciously blocked the name out of his mind.

"For treating you as kids." New snort, which caused Ian to snicker. "You are all so young. You are not supposed to know such abilities with the whip, or speak such of killing. But when you spoke to us, I think... I finally realized that you are not normal delinquents. You have felt a lot of pain, just as the rest of us, but I noted something... That it goes deeper for you. That the pain has been there for longer..."

"Your point?" Tala snapped.

"My point is that I want to say sorry. You are a good leader, Tala, and you all are more soldiers than most of my own people. I know the ways of the sword and a little of the gun, but not... like this. I would not want to meet you in battle or be your enemy. But I thought less of you. I dishonored you all." He bowed. Not only his head, but the body too, and he stopped having his cat-like eyes on the biggest threat in the room.

This threat was just about to use the opportunity, as always not caring the least what the people around him thought of him. But Tala stood before he could do anymore and shook his head at the emerald. Then, he took the steps needed to reach the man and crossed his arms. "I do not like adults," he said, and the man lifted his head, surprised at the weird look in the wolf's eyes. "They always think they are smarter because of their age and life. But I have only experienced one adult admit his faults, and now I found another one. And that is a man I wish to forgive."

The smallest smile showed on the man's face. "I am glad." The man was even more surprised when the redhead took his hand on the neko's shoulder and gave it a small squeeze. Behind them, Bryan snorted again, and wanted to leave the room as fast as possible. But he did not trust that man with his captain or his young friend.

"Of course, I cannot speak for my friends." Bryan's distrust was still amusing for his two friends, and Tala turned around and sat down in front of the chessboard on the floor once again. The emerald sat down too, but let Ian have his fun against their captain. But the neko was not done yet, though he still stood near the door.

"I have some questions for you," he said, and they all looked up again. "First is... how can you use a whip like that. I have never seen anyone use a weapon with such precision and ability, and that is even with a weapon I normally consider harmless and uncontrollable."

"Instead of treating me like every other child in the place we grew up, Boris gave me a whip in my hand. Normally, a man would have been whipping me, just to show me how unfair life was, and there even was a guard ready. But Boris did not command him to whip me. No, he did the opposite. He told me, that I had a choice. Either I whipped the man and he would help me. Or I would be set free, and _live_." Tala's eyes became distant. "I was four."

The man stood, staring for what seemed too long, before he shook his head. "I am sorry." He did not doubt that it was the truth. It was in the face of that serious teen, both now that he told about it and a small amount of pain was on his face, and by the way he was acting to people when he did not think his actions through.

"You should not be." It was Ian speaking, but he only said the words Tala had just been about to. "You had nothing to do with it, so you should not say sorry. But all our abilities come from experiences much like the one he describes... Yet everything is different from person to person. We went through each of our own different programs." At his last words, his crimson eyes set upon Bryan, who was not looking or focusing on anything in particular.

The man shivered and turned to leave. But Tala did not let him go that easily. "The past is pain. Be careful when you speak of it to others." The man just nodded over his shoulder and moved as quickly he could without losing his pride. But when he was out of sight, Ian turned his head to look at the redhead and smiled widely.

"I told you, that you did the right thing. He was impressed more than scared... until he got the story, that is. But most people probably feel like that, and you are a trustworthy person. They are all ready to fight by your side, my friend."

Tala just sighed as they began their game as if nothing had happened. "Yeah, seems you are right."

* * *

Okay, this has to be the hardest and shortest chapter yet. I fought a lot of fights because of the many things happening with my health and the inspiration being on its lowest.

Anyway, I love to write when Tala speaks. You probably do not feel it, but when I write his words, I feel all the feelings he put in to people, and I love that I have that effect on myself. And I hope Kai's part makes sense and is good, because I have looked this through, but I am so tired I think I might as well have made the confusion even worse.

But enjoy in joy ^^ (And kill the snowman! There is freaking snow everywhere! I hate that stupid, white shit!)


	22. November

Okay, this has taken very, _very_ long to make, but the reason is that I have symptoms of depression, but my doctor says I do not have a depression. This means my mood is at its lowest most of the time, and so, I have not been very inspired. The other reason I have taken so long (though it actually is not that bad? Two weeks since last update? Three?) is that I had to make a little three-shot called Black Bird.

But I forced myself to continue this story, despite my mood, for I want to be done with this story as fast as possible. Before New Year is impossible with such long chapters, so I head for end of January (not possible, either).

Disclaimer: Own nothing, wants everything, but do actually own... nothing.

Warnings: Look at former chapters.

Reviews:

None. Guess I was too fast with the chapter for ya, neh?

And so, I will let you see my creation...

* * *

November

* * *

Days had passed, but still, heavy breathing was heard in the luxurious cell at the near top of the black building. Heavy breathing that sounded like someone was doing a hard piece of exercise. Then, the sound of something breaking once more made a scream stop the heavy breathing, a scream that sounded like it came from the throat of an animal, though it actually came from a duo-haired teen. The pieces of the tenth broken launcher fell to the floor, crushed by his robotic hand.

The slate stared at the wall on the other side of the beystadium, as he tried to contain his anger inside his body. He was able to, and his face seemed motionless as he finally turned away from the wall and let himself fall down on a chair. His body was weaker than it had been, and he could feel his head spin and nausea grow. If he continued like this, he would end up exhausting himself so much he would throw up.

But that he would end up throwing up was the reason he continued, the reason he would not let his body rest and that he stood up nearly immediately after he had sat down and went over to find a new blade. If he was going to throw up, then he would pay that price. That it had to be the proof that he still had so much training to do if he would ever become what he had been. The only way to do that was to train. Now that he knew how weak he actually still was, Black Dranzer was merely a side-thing.

With the new launcher in hand, he stood ready by the stadium again and launched. For the first time, the blade actually stood there, and it actually spun. He stared, totally shocked by this success, and it was first when he got that feeling of flying he remembered the deal. He dragged himself to the ground again, instinctively not letting that flying feeling of power overcome him, and he heard the black phoenix hiss in anger at this.

Understanding that he should do the opposite, he breathed in and waited for the feeling to come again. Feeling the power come again, his feet stopped touching the ground, even though he was able to see them stand on the floor. Had it been three years ago, when he lusted of this power, he would have no problem with doing this. But now, he began to wonder if he did the right thing when he looked up from his feet again and met with the sight of the black phoenix.

Its green eyes stared down at him, waiting for him to continue. He had thought this was good enough, but the look in those green eyes told him different. And those eyes were... cold, though looking like hers. The slate tried to remember how he had loved this feeling, the power, and finally, he got that rush. In the world outside his mind, he heard the black phoenix cry with pleasure, but inside himself, he was caught in that old feeling. He wanted... Wanted to... destr-

_No!_

He did not remember closing his eyes, but opened them again when he threw himself backwards, away from the blade. Black Dranzer fell back in its beyblade, and the spinning top fell down and stopped moving. The slate was quite sure he heard the black phoenix hiss in anger, but he could not help it. It had been his instincts that had told him not to do it. If he would end like that again, he might as well just search for her all alone!

The black beyblade was lying motionlessly in the stadium, but he could not make himself take it up and try again. Not right now, at least. With trembling arms and legs, he got to his feet and closed both his eyes, shaking his head. He needed a break. "Tak-ing b-break..." he said loud, so the bitbeast also could hear what he said, and then let the room.

He tried to walk slowly down the stairs to the training room, but his body was too restless and mind too shaken be the experience. He ended up running all the way down the stairs. Not really conscious, he stopped by the top of the stairs in the training room, where he had spoken with his grandfather once. The other teens were training too, or forced to train by the guards. But the machines, the weighs and treadmills and whatever else they had, stood unused.

He would raise his stamina before his strength. The false arm was already so strong that he could do more than when he was at his highest when it came to lifting and doing things that required physical strength, but he became tired too easily. That meant he went for a treadmill, and forced himself to run at the speed he normally would have done. As before, the nausea came and made him feel like throwing up. Eventually, he _would_ throw up, he was sure of that.

His mind did not become clearer from the episode with the beyblade, not even after running for half an hour with a break every tenth minute. He stood and had his break, leaning forward to control the contains of his stomach, and did not even notice that a man came over to him and forced a bottle of water in to his hand. The violets lifted up to meet a bearded face, and the slate narrowed his eyes when he recognized him.

"I have noticed how you train," Maxim said, and he did look impressed. "You seem so... Determined. I just wanted you to have the water. It is not healthy to work like that and not replace at least some of the sweat." The slate opened his mouth to say something, even though he had realized he could not do it. Maxim just shook his head.

"I know what you want to say. Should you drink something I have given you? You know what I tried to do. But if I had poisoned the water, it would be too obvious, would it not? Anyway, I can imagine another thing you could think. What is the worst thing happening? Death? It is not like it would be that bad. Not for you."

The Russian soldier nodded his goodbye, his face sad. He regretted it, regretted whenever he saw the strength and the determination of that boy. It was that determination that had made him try to kill the boy, but had ended up breaking one that would never let anyone else collect the pieces. The slate was trying to collect them himself, and he would get a hard time succeeding in this. Some wounds he had gotten would scar if he did not get help.

But the slate agreed with the soldier. The worst thing that would happen was his death. He would never end in suicide or self-harm, but the thoughts had roamed in his mind a lot in the last few weeks. If he really was poisoned, he had not done it himself, and he had not been weak. So he took a long sip of the bottle and wiped the sweaty hair out of his eyes before continuing his training, knowing his legs would kill him later.

It was first after two hours he finally was able to calm down, and he could feel his legs tremble under his own weight. The bottle has also been emptied, and he _had_ thrown up like he had predicted. Twice, actually, and both times people stared at him, eyes wide and insides trembling. But this also impressed the Russian soldier.

He knew he never would be able to push himself just as hard.

The slate decided to stop his insane pushing of himself past his limits, and he stepped off the treadmill and walked back up the stairs. All the while, he did not show how his legs nearly gave in from underneath his body or how he was about to fall because he had not had enough to eat earlier. Not as long as there were teenagers and guards watching him. Or as long as the cameras were watching him.

He dragged himself through the halls, but it simply looked like he was just walking very slowly. He held his pride and clung to it, for it was about the last thing of the old him that he had left. And it was only by that he walked up the many stairs and ended at his room and got to the camera-less bathroom, where he finally collapsed. Dragging himself to his feet again, he opened the door and called out to the blade still lying in the beystadium; "Baffthhh..."

At least it sounded nearly like a word. When the bitbeast glowed at him, he was not sure if it was a kind or an angry glow, but at least it reacted. He took his head in to the bathroom again and turned on the shower, taking off his absolutely soaked clothes. It required sweat to come back to the living, and he did not even have anything spare in the bathroom. He would have to find that in the room, and he did not really want to go out there only with a towel.

It would have to wait. He did not even know if he wanted to change his clothes, despite the sweat soaking them. He pushed it aside and walked in under the hot water, letting it flood down his soon sore body. When he came out of the bath and had clothes on, he would go back to the training with the blade, trying to let the beast in to his mind.

It already now seemed impossible, if his reaction to it was so harsh he threw himself to the floor to get away from whatever the bitbeast did to him. But he would try. He did not even know how much truth there was in the bitbeast's words, but he was quite sure he had some information he had forgotten, that made some of its promises possible.

And it probably knew where _she_ was. That was even more important than anything else it had offered, even though he wanted the ability to speak back. If he could get that, the whole world seemed brighter. But she was still more important than he was. This was all about her. The rest were just positive side-things. She was all he wanted.

He stepped out of the shower, and the dilemma with his clothes came back. He decided to take the old ones on again, just because he saw no reason not to when he was still going to train. Then he came out of the bathroom and picked up the black blade in the stadium, relieved that the muscles in his body were still warm so he would not feel most of the soreness that would restrain his movements the next days.

Taking up the blade, he felt insecurity about doing it, trying to remember what thoughts uniting with the bitbeast put in to his head. He was not certain, and after a little debating with himself, he made the blade ready to launch and tried to let himself go. It was what he was supposed to do, and what would make him able to open up for his enemy. For enemies, he was quite sure they would never stop being.

Launching it again, he found that it was just an annoying coincidence that the blade had begun to spin earlier that day. The black blade fell to the floor like an apple from the tree, and he was quite sure he got as many bruises as the blade would have, if it really had been an apple. For two seconds, but what in his mind was two days, he stared at that blade with little hope in his eyes. For the thousandth time in this month, he felt ready to give up.

Nothing he did had brought him fruit. Everything he had done had only come to him after days, weeks, maybe even months of training. To get a blade to spin, to do what should be the most natural thing in the world, had now taken up four day, and he had managed to nearly stop destroying the launcher every time he made an attempt to spin the blade to only do it when his emotions welled up too high in his mind.

Today had been the first time it had really spun, and it had spun flawlessly. Why could he not do it now, only two hours later? Why should it be so hard? It would probably take a week to two more before he could get the blade to run like it had earlier, and then three months before he was able to open up for Black Dranzer. At least that would be how the world ended if his luck did not change.

As if he heard it from a tunnel far away, he heard the pieces of the launcher fall to the floor. In his overworking mind, it sounded as though the act ran in slow-motion just to mock him. As if it was on purpose of an evil faith that he could hear how each piece of plastic fell separated to the floor, and the next piece first came down a minute later.

With one of his animal-like cries, he fell to his knees in mental agony. Everything was against him. If Maxim had poisoned that water, he would have been in more peace than at this moment, even if he ended in hell. He had one launcher left. All the rest had been broken, and he was not sure if Boris would give him a new one just because he asked. Even if they wanted him blading again, and wanted him using Black Dranzer, Boris was Boris.

But Kai wanted to give up. More than anything, he wanted just to lay down where he had let himself fall and stop eating. Stop drinking. He would not even have to stop living; because his life had stopped the moment he realized it was impossible for him to blade. Nothing was left for them to take. It would be so _easy_, but he could not kill himself.

But as always, it was not that simple. Not for this Hiwatari. Somehow, after not even that much time, he collected the pieces of himself that he had spilled on the floor, stood up and attacked the problem with new energy. He found the last launcher in the drawer, closed it and kicked the plastic from the last launcher out of the way and tried again. And again and again. And then once more. Until it succeeded, at the end of the day.

The blade spun in the stadium. With less power than he wanted, sure, but it spun. He then tried giving up for the feeling of flying, and as he did, the black bitbeast rose in the room for the second time that day. But though he was doing well that far, the bitbeast still looked at him with those waiting eyes, asking him to take the next step. He tried. He really tried to give himself to the black being in front of him. But something in him pulled him backwards.

Fighting for a long time, he finally found a way to come closer to his goal. He stopped thinking, stopped fighting, the only function he really kept going was his breathing, which continued as the rest of him disappeared. Other thoughts filled his head. Thoughts he recognized, but still was sure was not his own. The rush kept him satisfied, as the black creature ducked its head and reached for his mind.

He was going to use this bitbeast. For the third time in his life, he experienced its power, and he wanted it. He would do everything for it. He would harm others, if that was what it took. If Voltaire ever threatened to take it away from him, he would no doubt betray the old man. And the same was with his old team. And if they continued to stand in his way... the solution was so simple. If they tried to separate him and his bit, he would just find a knife... And kill them.

A sick smile covered his pale face as the sick ways of the genderless bitbeast seeped in to his soul and filled him. The slate was flying, he knew if, and it was not even a dream. And as the bitbeast began invading his mind, he felt how he dived. It was not unpleasant... It tickled in his stomach. Black Dranzer lifted one claw and set it upon his head...

And the dive became unpleasant. Not because of the feeling of getting his mind invaded, but because his instincts began fighting against it. He felt himself falling, what before had been a funny rollercoaster ride became a free fall from a twenty story building, and he nearly screamed. For the second time that day, he threw his body backwards to defend himself, and the next thing he remembered from when he began opening himself was laying face-down.

He sat up, his whole, exhausted body shaking and trembling. He wiped the sweat off his face, and turned his head back to the beystadium, where the black blade was lying, having dropped dead when he pushed the bitbeast inside it away. It looked so innocent, the picture of the black phoenix turned towards him, and he forced himself to his feet. Just to go over at pick it up, like that little object had not just made him a whole different person.

He spoke in his mind, so he would not have to do it in the physical world. It was still embarrassing every time he opened his mouth when he forgot the disability, so he would not try to do it. That is it for today, he announced to the bitbeast, and could nearly feel the disappointment from the blade. As if something big had just been about to happen.

_We were so close this time. You just cannot stop now. It was so close!_ The voice of the bitbeast sounded urgent, but it did not move the teen. He just shook his head no and got himself ready to eat his dinner and then go to bed.

* * *

It was going so extremely well. Unlike what he had thought and feared, the words of the redhead had not been forgotten in the scary snarls of his whip. And that whip had not become unpopular as a weapon, either. There were more people learning the use of a whip than the use of the knife, despite the surprise the redhead's abilities had given. Maybe it was just the thought of having Bryan as a teacher that pulled the most to that weapon...?

People were dedicated to their training. You more often than not saw a person or a whole group having emptied a whole room or an outdoor facility to get room to train balance, stances or flings and flungs with the weapon that particular person had chosen. The words about fighting for friends and family, death and living, had started a fire in their souls that nothing was able to turn out. And with that heat, they would burn down Boris and Voltaire.

Time passed, and Tala found he enjoyed the role of teaching. It impressed him that people, some even older than him, would be going around and trying their best to get his praise. The only people older than him who had listened to his ever was Spencer and Bryan, Bryan only by few months, and while Spencer might be a whole year older, he was such a special person. And this was not even orders. They did as he told because he shared something with them.

Bryan had not as much success. Not because he was bad at teaching... With any other past, he would have been a teacher with more passion and more prestige than the redhead. But as his emotions became more controllable, he had gotten a bad habit of... simply not caring. He held no passion in anything, played chess because it took up his time, drove the car when the game bored him, and read the book when the other two had already been done that day.

While not caring, he had also become vicious. He played with Hillary's feeling, one day promising her that he would love her, the next acting as if he was mad at her and hating her. And he did not even know why he did this. Even if he was not what you would consider ruthless, he was a sadist, and every time someone ended up hurt, he would lurk in the shadows just to watch their pain. It was as if their pain made things more bearable.

That was also the reason he still, every once in a while, could not help harming someone. Every once in a while, a new person was victim of 'the wild animal', and was found more or less beaten up. His last victim had been Falak, because she was alone, at the wrong place, at the wrong time. She was found on the street the next morning, and she way in the category 'more'. Her neck had snapped, and she had died. Bryan had not known until she had been found.

Even though Falak had been one of the few people Bryan had liked at least a little, his teammates were beginning to suspect him. The rest of the group had only suspected him because they did not like him and he was the only one with the strength to make such damage. But in their primitive society, they were not able to find the evidence that gave them the right to... punish him. But the probably could not make themselves throw him out in the wild anyway.

But his team kept silent, even though the night of the day she was found dead became an awkwardly silent night to lie down and fall asleep. And for Bryan, it did not become a comfortable night. Not that he was surprised of that, since he had come in to a habit lately. A habit of sitting up from his sleep with a scream in his throat, only barely managing to keep silent so he did not wake up his teammates, the only people that could make him care.

Tonight was a different night. Maybe it was because he had a murder in fresh memory, or maybe it was just a coincidence that it laid on the same night he found out he had killed someone without it being on purpose. But when he began trashing around in his sleep, images forming just underneath his eyelids, he did not only sit up in the bed this night. He ended up throwing himself off the side of the bed, and woke with a start on the floor.

He wiped the long hair out his eyes, breathing heavily with the fear still terrorizing his mind, and he forced himself to his feet, trying to stay silent to let the other two sleep. He moved out of the room, opening the door wide, but did not close to. He knew he would close it too hard, and that he would end up waking them up. What he did not know was that they already were awake. And that they always were, whenever he was terrorized by a nightmare.

He headed for the kitchen and leaned in over the table, trying to get a grip. But his thoughts were too torn and too confusing, still trying to collect the pieces of the dream that he remembered. Once again, he ended up taking pen and paper, and write down the memories on the kitchen table with his eyes half-closed and mind somewhere else:

_It was a dream, but the scene is recognizable. Basically every day of my younger years in the abbey. I was put in a chair and chained, so that my arms and legs could not move. I already then knew they were not necessary to them. I already then knew I would not do any resistance, though I was scared. A person in a white coat came towards me. _

_I could not see the face. The only thing I saw was the needle in the pale hand. An injection-needle. In the other was a whip. I wanted to fight, I wanted to scream, but the voice came. I did not know where it came from, but it said _it_. It told me those words I have heard so many times and that are always a part of my nightmares. 'Just relax... You do not __fear... Fear is an illusion, created in a weaker part of your mind... Erase the fear... Just relax... Become strong...'_

_Even now, that is what is most clear in all the blur of the dream. The needle came closer. I was so scared. I wanted to fight, I wanted to get free, but I could not. That voice stopped me. That voice always told the truth. My whole body trembled as I fought to keep myself from fighting to get away from that needle, but at the same time as my body reacted like that, sitting totally still and following orders, my mind was screaming. But I could not disobey the voice._

_I was so scared as it came closer. It was as if the person walked through a long tunnel, and I could see it as if it was just beside me, even though it was far away. Then the hand moved, moving the needle closer, and I tried to close my eyes in the dream, but I could not. It was then I saw the face of the person coming towards me. It was my mother._

_It was her voice speaking those haunted words. My body was still paralyzed. I saw the needle come over and not turn my arms, as they always did, but she took the needle towards my neck. And she injected it there. It was then I awoke._

_And though I know it was just a dream, I still have that fear pulsing through my veins along with the adrenaline. I do not understand why the scene is set like that... Why is it my mother? Why the whip? And why injecting the neck instead of my arms, like they usually did?_

_I do not know what to do now. I cannot just sit here, in the kitchen, but at the same time, I cannot go back to bed. Not when I feel like this, not when I am scared like this. I know I will not be able to sleep_

"Bryan?"

The gray-haired teen jumped in surprise, and within seconds, a knife was in his hand and directed towards the speaking redhead. The blue eyes stared at his teammate with that calculating look that beforehand had belonged to the emerald. The green eyes turned to stare out the window, the knife falling down to his side. Even in his sleep, the emerald did not seem to like being unarmed. It was like that Ian and Tala always slept with a gun by their sides.

The wolf tried to act like nothing special was happening this particular night. He did not ask if his friend was okay. It was quite visible on his face that he was not. "How long have you had nightmares?" the redhead asked instead, making the emerald shrug. The genius mind began counting backwards and backwards...

Until the result came to his mind. "When you came back with the chopper. Before that, I only had them every once in a while, and not as bad as now. It is about every night now..." His eyes were distant as his hand touched the white paper he had just written on. What had happened at that day...? "It was that day I finally figured it out. That I finally was able to feel without ending up killing someone. But it still does not make sense."

"You okay, Bry?" It was the smaller member, who was also the slower one to wake up. He was standing before the redhead, wiping the sleep out of his eyes. He was concerned for the friend he did not like, but truly did love. And just by looking at that face, he could see that the gray-haired was certainly not okay. Unlike the rest of the abbey-kids, Bryan had not needed to use a mask to hide his emotions. That meant he did not have one now.

The emerald just shrugged, his eyes still distant as he stared out of the window, the streets getting soaked in more rain and fog. If it had been Russia, the snow had already covered the buildings and trees with white. Leaving the paper on the counter, he turned around and walked past his teammates to do what he knew he would never be able to. "I am going back to sleep," he told and went back to his bed. He was just not allowed to go that far.

For Ian had something different in mind. "Did you kill Falak?" The emerald froze where he stood, an unreadable expression on his face, and used quite some time to turn around. When his front was turned to them, his face showed that one they had gotten used to, a face of indifference. That he did not really care about what happened around him.

He answered by shrugging. "Yeah, I did. It was not my intention, but I did."

Though the answer was expected, the redhead, who had been bowing over the paper on the counter in the kitchen, straightened up abruptly. He moved over to where he could see the emerald and attacked with his words, his blue eyes showing the anger his face did not betray. "And mind telling me _why_ you did that? Did you beat up the others, too, then?" he sneered, making Bryan take a step back. The not caring expression changed into slight fear.

If anyone else had treated him like that, he would not have cared. But those two, who was looking at him with both anger and even disgust, meant more than anyone else. He turned away, his eyes settling on the floor as shame shot through him. "I... do not know. Why do I do it?" The green eyes met first the blue, then the crimson pair, the emerald orbs filled to the brink with honesty. He did not understand why he did it.

"No matter what, it is _wrong_. You should _not_ kill your friends, it is shameful and wrong. And you shall never **dare** doing it ever again!" Both of the two had little patience left over for him, and the redhead was still sneering. It was a wrong move, though. Suddenly, the small table standing by the couch flew through the room and hit the wall, flying inches past the redhead's head. And both the crimson and the blue pair of eyes widened.

"Oh, so it's _wrong_? It's _shameful_?" The emerald growled like a bull, his body shaking with what his teammates saw as anger. In truth, it was sadness and frustration. He was like a child, trying to get his parents to understand that his knee was not only scraped, but that there was a giant, infected wound covering the whole shin. **(1)** "I don't _**care!**_And don't call them my friends! I will never trust those people. You want me stop doing something I don't know why I do? Does that sound right in your ears or _**what?**_"

The bigger teen turned around and did not let any furniture stand in his way. He tumbled the couch over, kicked his own, dear chessboard away from the floor in front of him and smacked the door open so hard that it flew off its hinges and the pictures on the walls behind him fell to the ground. He stopped for a second in the doorway and looked at them with a weird expression on his face. It seemed he wondered if he wanted to speak to the two.

But he decided not to. He smacked the door in place again, though it just fell to the floor, broken. It was first then his teammates were freed from the spell that had bound them, and they ran for the door to come after him. But too fast, the engine on the car outside started, and they heard how he drove off and let them alone to their very bad conscience.

The emerald tried to sleep in the car, but found that he was unable to. In his sleep, all the demons from his past were waiting for him. Awake, his only friends had just disappointed him. Those two reasons kept him awake, and he just stared out the window, just watched how the fat drops of rain splattered across it, the buildings of the city as a sad, dark background. All he wished for was to write his feelings down, get a grip, but the car had neither paper nor pen.

The sun began rising behind the lead black clouds. His eyes followed it as it rose and rose, a single light in all the darkness that was all around him. And suddenly, he felt a glow in his pocket and looked down at it. Slowly, he let his hand go down in the pocket and found his blade. Falborg. The bitbeast that never before had comforted him now tried to fill him with warmth, and the smallest smile grew on his face.

He stepped out of the car, still with the beyblade in hand, and went to walk home to his teammates. Not caring for the weather or that he had a car he could drive in. He had only driven around three corners. He could walk that in less than ten minutes, if he kept up the pace he had at the moment. But it was not going to happen. Because some people had their window open in this weather, and they were awake at this hour. And it is always interesting to listen...

"... What date it is?" It was the neko-jin. The one the emerald had bladed against in the championship three years ago. The one who was called Rei. And he was speaking with the one called Lee and the blond Mystel.

"It's November the 2nd," Lee informed after some thinking. The nekos had been able to keep track of their calendar.

"Seriously? It has nearly been a whole year..." Mystel mumbled, while Rei had an odd silence around him.

"What happened to Kai? Is he dead?" Rei asked. Bryan moved closer, but still made sure he could not see them, and that they could not see him. He was beginning to get cold, the rain having soaked him.

"No... He did not die. He... Kind of changed sides... Again." It was Mystel speaking, and he sounded quite insecure.

"Se-seriously? _Again?_ That shit is not one you can trust," Lee snorted, but once again, Rei was silent.

Then he spoke. "We have to go back and find him." His voice was determined and did not listen to their arguments, and his words seemed wise as he continued. "I know he has done it before, well, many times. But one thing that is common for every time is, that he changes his mind again after a few days or a few months. Months have passed, and I fear he might be a lone rebel in the enemy's lines..." The others had fallen silent. Then Lee spoke again.

"We will have to convince the rest to come with us. We can neither find the place where they are or have the power to go in." There was some more silence, this break shorter than the others. "But it will probably be hard to convince most. Most is still not comfortable with their new weapons. And I have heard Bryan is not taking it seriously, that he does not really care for his pupils. It is no surprise. It seems he grows more and more ruthless every time I see him."

"Also, I heard someone say it is him who attack people," Mystel shared. "That he was the one who killed Falak and attacked you, Lee. If I know him correctly, for he has shown a different side of himself than the one I remember him as, Tala is trying his best not to show how much his teammate is concerning and scaring him. He once said that Ian is even afraid of sleeping in the same room as Bryan." The emerald stared blindly at the open window. His night already was bad, and now this. And since he had thrown a table after them, he felt they had the right to feel like that.

"Why are we even talking about him? We have no real proof of anything against him, anyway," Rei said.

"Says you, whose body is scarred by the winds from his bitbeast," Lee snorted. Bryan turned around and began walking away from them, no longer needing to listen to their words.

He strode for the car, his mind determined to do what had crossed it. He had had a bad night, and a bad day, and yet it had not changed the slightest bit in him. Every day was a bad day to him, so why should he want to continue this journey, when no one cared for him and no one seemed to need him? He was not going to stay here, that was certain.

He stepped in to the car, soaked from head to foot, and started the engine. Turning it around, he sped back towards the apartment where he and his teammates were living. This was not a part of his plan, but it seemed like a good idea to him. Besides, it took him no time to reach the building, and he stopped right outside it.

The road was slippery because of the rain. He gassed up the engine, hearing how it roared out in the beginning of the day. He did not see their faces in the window, see how they stared at him with wide eyes, realizing what he was about to do. He just stared at the wall he was about to head towards. Then, he put the machine in to gear and the wheels began spinning, with neck-breaking speed towards that walk he had decided.

A hundred thoughts flew through his mind. He wondered if the world could have been different. What would have happened if he had not met Boris? Would his mother have had money for an education? Would his father have separated them? What person would he be? What life would he have had? Would he have been able to love? To have a family? To live, instead of doing the poor excuse for living he had done all his life?

His thoughts were broken by an image. _He was standing on a crowded platform, watching the trains fly by him. Every time a train stopped at the platform, it opened its doors and welcomed him. But every time he moved towards the train to get on, the door closed, and the welcome was turned down. It happened again, and then... once more. When the third train stopped, the doors were open, asking him inside._

_He did not want to go towards them. He did not want to see those doors close again, leaving him behind and letting the rest of the people waiting on the platform in. It was so unfair that he decided to go against everything and everyone around him and turned around. Behind him was only darkness. The platform stopped after just a few feet, and then, there was a veil of nothing. He took a step towards it. There, he knew he could not be rejected._

_Yet there was something. He turned his head again, watching the golden light coming from the open door and the windows of the wagon. Then his green eyes turned back to the darkness. It looked cold and unattractive. Trying to take the train by surprise, he turned around and began running towards the open door in a second. He nearly was able to this time. The doors closed right in front of his fingertips. But he was closer. He would catch the next one._

His mind was clear again, and he stomped on the break. The image had only taken a second, but it was a second that was dangerous to lose. The road was wet, and the break did not react, and once again, questions flew through his mind. But it was different. What would Tala say when he realized this? What about Ian? Could they stop Boris?

And why the fuck did the brake not react?

He turned the steering wheel to the side, trying to avoid the collision with the wall. The only thing happening was, that the vehicle turned, and it was the passenger side that hit a lamppost instead of the building. Glass exploded all around him. His body was flying out of the seat. He never wore his seat belt, but was lucky enough that the airbag on the other side of the car had reacted. It caught him, and saved his life, but the world had not yet stopped erupting.

Metal bowed as the car formed itself around the post. The space around him grew smaller, and he tried to pull his legs up to his body. He had closed his eyes, and adrenaline pumped through his body as he tried to calculate a way out of this. But before he found a solution, the car finally stopped moving, and he opened his eyes again.

He heard yelling around him, and looked around in the car.

It did not look like a car. One side was too close to the middle of the car. He felt confusion as he tried to crawl out of the biggest hole in the car, the windshield. The adrenaline made him unable to be certain of his wounds. He knew, though, that some of the glass had wounded his forehead. Blood dripped in to his eyes from somewhere up there. But he was also quite sure he did not hit his head. And he was able to get out of the car. "Bryan?"

It was Ian's voice. The emerald just continued to worm his way out of the car. "'m fine... Car slip'd..."

"Damn you, Bryan," Tala's voice said. The car was totally crippled, and he was stock halfway out of it with his one leg. "As if you slipped. I saw you; you cannot deny you did it on purpose." Both of them appeared in his line of sight, and he stared up at them, the blood making him look even worse than he was. "We owe you an apology," the redhead continued as the two tried to help him out. The crash had been loud and caught many people's attention.

"It's okay," Ian lied to them as the emerald got to his feet. "The car just slipped."

* * *

The room was dark, except a small light from the yellow lamp on the wall. The black silhouettes of the furniture contrasted the lighter wall, the light being enough for some people to see most of the room. It was a nearly beautiful image of the dark, and the violet eyes watching it was peaceful. Only his good eye was able to separate the different kinds of darkness, and he might as well have closed the other eye. He just did not.

He was thinking hard, despite the peace the eyes had masked it with. The slate had come nowhere with his attempts of opening to the black phoenix, though he was able to blade nearly as perfect as he had done before the coma. But even after trying for a month, his body continued to push away. And it had only taken him four days of trying before he began doubting how clever the decision to use the black bitbeast was. Then why was he still trying?

It was the dream of it. The dream of restoring his lost memories, the dream of maybe being able to speak again. The dream of seeing perfectly again. And the dream of seeing her red feathers and feeling he warmth as she was in his pocket. He was very sure this bitbeast had the power to do all of this. The problem was just what he would lose to get this dream. No one knew what he would lose, and if it was worth it.

For that reason, it might be good that the second attempt of Black Dranzer to get in to his mind had been the closest one. And it was exactly these thoughts that kept the slate from sleeping, as he stared into the darkness with the blind and the seeing eyes. For he had just gotten to know that there might come a chance for him to at least take back her without the use of the dangerous bitbeast.

A guard had told him just an hour ago that his grandfather was visiting him in a week for a special event. He did not know what the event was, and he did not really care. The interesting thing was just that he came. And unlike Boris, Voltaire had no doubts of walking alone with his grandson. And it would be obvious that Voltaire knew where she was. That meant the slate just had to be a little... convincing.

But how should he be that when he could not speak? His voice and words normally was what helped him get what he wanted from others, and his biggest opponent in the game of speech had always been his grandfather. That old man would be even more troublesome when the slate could not speak, would he not? That meant Kai had to think.

The slate turned on the bed, closing his eyes to sleep on it, but thoughts echoed from one wall of the inside of his head to the other. It seemed so loud to him that he opened the eyes again and turned the violets to the single light in his prison. If he turned it off, the room would be left in total darkness, and he would be walking around totally blind when he woke again, but it annoyed him that it was alight. He turned once again and took the blankets over his head.

If his grandfather came for a special event, then it would be something special. But Kai did not know what this special event was. Normally, his grandfather stayed away to control his world from somewhere else, where got the supplies they used here. Actually, how they got food was something bugging the slate's mind. But he pushed it away, because the important thing was his grandfather.

If there was a special event, they would have dinner together. Then, if he knew the old man right, they would move to somewhere else. They might see something that meant something, like the rest of the 'pupils' training, or the slate would be set to follow him to the exit. Either of them would work, since both gave them time alone. And without being able to speak, Kai figured out he had to use brute strength. And the metal-arm might be useful there.

His one foot was out in the open air when he pulled the covers up over the head. The air outside the duvets was cold, telling about the climate outside the building. The foot froze. The slate tried to take the covers over his cold foot with the toes on the other, but could not do so without taking the covers down from over his head. He did not like that, so he chose to try the other option, and took both knees up to his chest, curling his body up.

It helped his cold foot, but when that problem was over, another came. The air under the blankets was too confined and the way he now was laying made it harder to breathe. It felt like the air did not contain the right amount of oxygen, and he took the head out from under the blankets. It helped, and he turned over again, his eyes still closed.

The problem with the metal-arm was just that he did not know who strong it was. He could not feel when he pressed too hard. If he held a launcher, he could crumble it without even noticing that his false fingers had met resistance when the sound of cracking plastic informed him so. The same could happen with a bone.

The rest of his body was not yet strong enough to even dream of taking on his grandfather. Though in his sixties, that man had a scaring strength and was fast as lightning. The slate had been training every day since he had begun trying to work with the black phoenix, and he was getting stronger. But that man was still too big a match for him, and he had to find another way to become stronger than him. He did not want to harm him, just force information out of him.

As he had turned to the other side again, his lower back began itching, and without thinking, he used the false arm to itch back. The itching just moved, and continued all the way past his bottom and down his leg, and he let the arm follow. But the itching would not stop, so he stopped scratching it instead and tried to ignore it.

But it just continued, until it evolved into a whole colony of ants moving inside his one leg. It spread out to the other, a restlessness that he could not flee from, and he turned again. Then turned again. Then he kicked with one leg, trying to move the crippling feeling in the leg out. It did not help either, and he sat up in frustration, going to the toilet to drink some water from the sink. That helped sometimes.

He had to find a way he was able to threaten the old man he felt so much anger towards. Since his body was unable to help him, he might be able to use the metal-arm. The problem was just that it was so damn strong that he could harm the man without having the intention of. That would not be good. So the slate had to find another way to do it, to force him to tell where he could find Dranzer and maybe even make him give it back.

He stood up from bowing over the sink and wiped the water away from around his mouth. On his way back to bed, something glinted in the light of the small lamp. It came from somewhere behind the book on the bookshelves, and it triggered a memory he had forgotten all about. It made him smile, just the slightest bit, as he turned. He knew how to do it. He knew how he should make his grandfather follow his command without hurting him.

So the slate-haired teenager went back to bed with a small smile on his face. And as he lied down under the duvets, it did not take him long to close his eyes and fall asleep, his mind finally at ease and able to relax. He was ready for his grandfather's visit, and he had been that for over six months without even knowing of it.

* * *

**(1)** Did you know that parents often take their kids pain too lightly? That situation could be very possible with some parents (including my own, my parents have the belief that every sickness and pain pass on its own and took their children's pain lightly when I was younger (I still love my parents, I have no grudges, promise!)).

* * *

Okay, this is not very long, either, but I can nearly say that it is on purpose. Kai's last scene is short on purpose, so I made Bryan's a little longer too, but it still did not get that long a chapter. Also, Kai's last scene actually got longer than I had thought it to, as I collected a pattern from when I wrote after having written ten-twenty lines. So I was able to make it longer and more realistic than I first had expected.

For Bryan's part, I can only say one thing; he survived fighting a fucking bear, he must be able to crawl out a car-crash without too many injuries, right? Also, I have revealed his current state of mind, and he is about in the middle of the two states I had thought he could end as. He is not as ruthless, but neither an innocent child trapped in too strong a body. He is a child caught in a strong body, who has urges he cannot control and thoughts he cannot stop, and the only way he keeps himself in check is getting the thoughts out on paper.

Also, the vision Bryan gets right before changing his mind seemed very beautiful in my own mind. I do not know if I caught that beauty I had thought, but I hope...

And then I have no more things to say ^^ Enjoy in joy!


	23. On the knife edge

Here again with next chap. Still, my mood is low, so this was a tough one, too, but I am writing still! And I hope you all love the story, cause it is a pleasure writing it ^^ And things are speeding up again, just as I had thought. I think it will be between 27 and 32 chapters in all, if things go as planned, and nothing new will disturb the plot line.

Disclaimer: Owns nothing, look at former chapters for more info.

Warnings: You all have read 'em, ya know 'em by now.

Reviews:

Gud: As always, you do not really count... Sorry ;) But I promise you, I have no plans of killing Xiu.

Cherry-Toxic: You know, to me, it is the E and T-buttons -.- Annoying, especially since they are in the category of most used letter in Danish. But anyway, as always your thoughts and words brings me happiness, and makes my proud of making this story. Your reviews brings a whole new perspective to my writing, and I will say, I totally agree with your words about Bryan, and I'm the one writing the story. I don't know how he ended like this, and I'm not totally understanding why he does the things he does, but my guess is that while trying to contain the feelings, he has to have something to cling to. But he has not found this something, his teammates not really good at looking out for each other, even though they are master of keeping together. And I won't comment on the couples, except that you are right, Tala has much more in him than he wants to show. And I promise you, Black Dranzer will get an important part of the later plot. When Kai and the rest of them get together again, that is.

And then I will show you what my wicked mind have created for you this time.

* * *

On the knife edge

* * *

It had not been hard for Rei to convince all to continue. Half of the group felt they were able to handle their new weapons so well that no one could stop them, the other half still felt the fire from Tala's speech for so long ago. So all felt ready to go when the neko had suggested it three days after the emerald had sped right in to the lamppost, and he only waited so long for the redhead, afraid that Tala had been shaken by another near-death episode with Bryan.

Beside a few bruises and many cuts, the emerald had been fine, and when they had begun the journey towards Boris, it had been in cars. He had let the redhead lead the way, despite the wolf having a bad cold, until they reached a river with an injured bridge made of concrete. But the injuries were weird, and he and Tala took only a few seconds to stare at them, then up to the mountains in the distance. The pattern of the cracks... The depths and shapes... It could only be

Falborg and Bryan were becoming closer. He had survived the car crash incredibly well, even though the car had been in pieces. The emerald had decided to believe his bitbeast had taken its wings around him and protected him. He believed he owed it something. And for the first time, those two had a connection. For the first time ever since they had seen him with his beyblade in his hand, his teammates could see the light in his eyes all owners of a bitbeast had.

Following the river on foot, they could find unnatural destruction of the stones and plants on the ground and in the trees around them. As soon as the neko-jins, who were hunters and used to the wild, understood what it was and that they followed it, Tala found that they were useful. Their eyes sharper and movements faster, they found the track far more easily than they would have if they had been alone.

The mountain they traveled up at was still bathing in green. Green grass and evergreen plants. But at the absolute top, snow had settled, and it would not take long before the snow covered the whole mountain. The snow would make it impossible to survive, and the tracks they would make in the snow would be hard to hide, so, for once, the world had blessed them with luck. It was still green. They did not yet know how long they would be up that mountain, but it could end hard.

Though the walk was faster, the journey was still long, and it took a few weeks for them after they left the cars.

It was with a mixture of happiness and fear that they saw the shadow darken the sky in the distance. It was the place where the younger members had experienced pain and where the neko-jins knew their friends and family was trapped. So many mixed thoughts surrounded this building, and it would be an honor for the most to break it.

Immediately when they saw it, they stopped. Overwhelmed by a lot of things, they decided to set camp here, and try to organize their next move. Many, who had felt ready to attack the moment they came here, felt insecure and most of all wanted to leave again. And that was both by the teenagers and the neko-jins. None of them had really, truly expected it to come so soon and to be so _real_ when they finally reached their scary destination.

The only ones that felt a hundred percent ready were the Blitz-boys and the kids Ian had with him in the desert. Those kids had already seen a lot of battle, and because of Ian's always laughing face when he used his favorite weapons, guns of all kinds, they all had ended up seeing it as a funny game. And Bryan had quite a few ways you use their eagerness for their best. But for now they just wanted to keep quiet and discuss how they should work in the building.

And that was where the emerald could use the small kids to find all the information the bigger could not come.

"Bryan, mind sharing your thoughts?" Tala asked, already when they only had been there for two minutes. But he had seen the look in the face of the emerald, the look that meant plans were forming and shaping and coming together in to higher place in that genius brain. The emerald shrugged his shoulders, as always having the feeling of not really caring for the world. And though he hid it as well as he could, knowing his friend was unstable still, Tala felt sad because of this lack of caring and passion and life in his friend.

A pale hand reached up to scratch the long, itching wound the crash had provided the emerald's forehead, but the daring look in the blue eyes made him stop. He was not allowed to scratch it, cause the scar he would get was already bad enough for Tala's taste. "Sorry 'bout that," he said, though the apology did not reach his face. Then he began explaining his plans, the things that was slowly welling up in his head:

"I am just planning how we invade. There are more than one building, and one of the others is providing all the rest of the buildings electricity from the river we have followed. If we destroy the turbine, the whole facility lose all power. The cameras stops working, the light goes off, and if they have made new locks for the cells and they use electricity, we also can free people without having to work too hard for it.

Another plus is also, that the guards probably have flashlights. If we tell everyone that it is forbidden to take a flashlight, then we know anyone with light in their hands is an enemy. Of course, there is a problem of us walking around in total darkness, but if we want to have a chance to move around more or less unseen, then we must sacrifice.

Another thing is that I only have been able to see two buildings. That means, if I am right, that the third and, if they have one, forth is underground. Brooklyn has told me that there are more buildings than the ones we know of. The problem is to find the building. There, we can use Ian and the rest of the midgets to move around in the tall grass, of course after dark, and seek for the rest of the buildings that might be there.

Lastly, I still have the list of employees. Some of them are dead after our first escape, some of them are against the ways of Boris and probably will not harm us. That means we are a lot more than they are, and can split up without even risking our lives too much. And people have a lot of different intentions of going inside. People have to want what they do, and that means those who want to free people from the building we suffered in must form a group and go in there. Those who want to free the prisoners go in where we think the prisoners are.

And those who wish to find and bring Kai back goes in and finds him together.

My assumption is that Voltaire has decided to make Kai suffer, as a part of the games they normally always played when he was younger. That means Kai has not seen the outside, and is most likely either at the top or in the cellar of the building where we last saw him. For the prisoners, I assume they are in the building with the turbine, but we can not be certain before we have found the rooms I think they have made underground."

There was a break in the speech, and the redhead tilted his head to the side. "Anymore?" The answer he got from the emerald was a silent shake with the head. Still, Tala could not help smile at all the things his friend had figured out in a matter of minutes. "That means next step is to find out what is underground. Ian!" The small one came over to them the moment the redhead had called. "You and your friends search the area. There should be rooms underground. If you find a way inside, we can already attack tomorrow. But wait for the darkness."

The small one nodded, a grin coming over his face. You could be sure that he would search for the entrance very hard. The faster they got in to the buildings, the faster thing would get interesting. Being an Abbey-kid, Ian had more reason of killing Boris and Voltaire than anyone of the teenagers. He might even use all night on searching for the entrance if it was what they needed.

"You should begin to inform the rest about the ways of the battle that might come tomorrow," the emerald said as he and his captain watched how the rest were setting up camp. Tala looked at the emerald for a while, then looked down at Ian, and it looked as though the two had a silent conversation. But since he did not really care about the world around him, Bryan missed the eye-contact and missed that the occasionally would break it to look at him.

It took a small while of silence before the two were done, and then the redhead turned to the emerald again. "Yes, that is true. But it can wait for tonight, can it not? Tell me, Bryan..." His way of speaking brought the brilliantly green eyes to watch him again, and the redhead used his own eyes to catch the attention of his friend. "You look tired. You have done that for a long while now. How well are you sleeping?"

The only answer he got was a shrug, and Ian came in to the conversation. Being more direct, the small one asked the question the redhead had tried to get the answer of. "Do you still have your nightmares?" The emerald just shrugged again, and the color in the smaller ones face told he was getting annoyed. He did not feel very comfortable around the bigger teen, giving him very little patience of with Bryan. But still, he was worried. It could even be called _very _worried. "What is that supposed to mean?"

With a sigh, the emerald began speaking, his eyes half-closed as he watched the two. "I have them, sometimes."

"And what does that mean, then?" the redhead asked, hoping to get an open answer out of him. Both of them had noticed how their teammate had become more tired-looking and irritated, which made them fear that he was sick. But it could also be the nightmares, and after having read what he had written down on the paper that night before he tried to kill himself, they both hoped he was just sick. Sickness, they could help him with. The past they did not know of, they could not.

"About every time I sleep, they are there." That was what it meant, and he did not want to continue the conversation. So instead of letting next the question out of their mouths and make it longer than it necessary, he answered it before they got to speak. "I make sure to keep myself awake as long as I can. A few nights, I have not even slept, other nights, I have grown so tired my sleep has been so deep that I have not even dreamed. Any other questions you want answered now, or what?"

The two asking shared an equally sad look, knowing it would be hard to deal with. "What are you dreaming of?" Tala asked, making sure his tone was polite. He knew that the emerald might become angry if they pressed too harshly on him. They had already seen that the night he had crashed the beloved car, which Ian had mourned over when he had become certain Bryan would survive without physical problems. Ian always had wanted such a car.

Minutes passed as silence was between them. Their question was dumb. Very dumb indeed. "It is always the same, nearly nothing of it changes from time to time. And you have already read my dream. You have no reason to ask me about this. But what will you do now? Now that you know?" No, he definitely did not was to talk about this. Why was a question unanswered, and it would stay like that. "Though... Every once in a while... I have another dream..."

For a second, the two were fearing their teammate was about to throw another fit. But interest came back in to their eyes when they heard him speak of something they had not heard before, and Ian even took his hand to keep him by them as he was about to walk away. "What other dream?" he asked, but the green eyes just stared at him blankly, not wanting to share with them. It all was hurtful. Things that he had not cared for in the moment, for obvious reasons.

The emerald just shook his head no. He did not want to tell. "You know, Bry... There is so much we do not know about you. The rest of us kind of grew up together, but you were separated from the rest of us..." the wolf nearly pleaded. But the emerald eyes still avoided their looks as his body tensed at the selection of words.

Then he nodded. He nodded yes to telling them at least something. "In the dream..." He dragged them off to get away from possible listeners. "It is dark. The only reason I know I am actually dreaming is because I can hear the rats pottering in the hay around me. I even _feel_ the hunger in the dream, and I am waiting for the light to come outside the door, so I can see the light in the cracks. It means they will bring me food... But the door never opens. And every time I am about to cry out of loneliness or moan in pain, the voice comes from a speaker."

He did not have to explain the last part. The voice... It seemed it was the thing that haunted him the most, the voice that claimed he did not have any feelings. But the rest of the setting he described was a mystery. What was that room? It could be pure symbolic, but he knew too much about it for it to truly be a mystery. "What is that room?" It was the redhead asking again, and once again, those beautiful, green eyes sought the ground.

"It was my cell. Just like all except for you, Tala, had a cell they lived in when they were younger, it was my cell. No light. I had no toilet, had to do it in the corner of this 3 feet 5 room. Rats everywhere, who were just as hungry as I was. So hungry they sometimes bit my legs when I slept, making me wake up doing the night, knowing it would not be good to sleep again. When one rat died, the rest ate it to keep alive. And sometimes, I ate it too. They were just as trapped in that room as I was, and I am quite sure Boris planted them there just before my arrival.

I could see when it was day and when it was night by the light that came in to the totally dark room from the cracks between the door and the wall. And when the light was turned on in the morning, it meant I got my food. The only food I got throughout the day. It was enough to keep the hunger away for half the time the light was turned on, and the rest of the time, I just ignored it. Ignored my hunger. My first nights in the abbey, I sat there, crying. And then, the voice would come and make me shut up.

When I had eaten the food in the morning, either the scientists or Boris would come. I always knew if Boris would be the one coming, for that was the only time I got a bath the day before. It was only cleaned once a year, or something like it, so I think I needed the baths. And with no toilet..." He just shook his head instead of going in to detail.

"My cell was placed just beside the lab where most of the experiments on me was done. I could also hear every time someone was punished for losing, for the punishments happened in that lab. Sometimes I was left alone in the darkness for days, and the screaming from the losing kids was the only thing telling me that there was something outside. The scientists always injected things into me, and I know that whatever it was, it was _that_ and not the food that gave me nutrition to survive and grow. And it gave me my inhuman strength. Most of the projects ended in me, fainting and being lifted back to my room.

If it was Boris that came for me, I was nearly sure I was going to do some assignment. The scientists let me train blading every once in a while to see my reactions to the game and so many people around me, which meant I never got good at the game when I was up against others. I had about the same amount of training with guns, but there, I was a natural and good at using them. But Boris made me go out and sell big amounts of drugs if Voltaire did not give enough money to the Abbey. But I first got out of the cell for good when I became a part of your group."

None of his teammates had ever heard him tell bit before, and it surprised them. He had always told them that he had been 'separated' from others in an 'isolated cell'. But it made sense. Thinking back, the emerald had always been covered in dirt when they saw him, and he had always ignored the ones around him, because they were not a part of his world. They had made fun of him because he was stinking, and because he was with the scientists all the time, even though they truly were actually fearing him.

Watching how Bryan's eyes stared intensely at the ground beneath his feet, the wolf lifted his hand up and placed it on his shoulder. The gray-haired head rose from its bowed position, and they stared in to his eyes as the long, gray hair no longer hid them. "Do you... regret it?" he asked, making sure to catch the green eyes before they fell again.

The answer given ended in a shake of the head. "No. What should I have to regret? When I first got in there, I was too young to fight them anyway. And when I got older, I was too sick in the head to even care about where I stayed or how I lived my life." The words coming out of his mouth were strong once again, and he took his shoulder to himself, anger back in his eyes. "Night comes early. We must help the others with the camp. And you have something to tell them, Tala."

"What?" the redhead asked, watching the emerald's retreating back. He had totally forgotten about how he was supposed to tell the rest of them about the plan and about tomorrow, but when Bryan did not answer, his mind found out all alone. "Oh... yeah. You are right." At the moment, there was nothing they could do for their friend, anyway.

And maybe there would never be.

But they continued to go back to the camp anyway, so Tala could find a new speech to give them that would make then ready for the next day. But just as he was about to tell them what plans they had, and that he was going with the ones who tried to retrieve Kai, and that they must not take flashlights from the guards they killed, and that Ian and the rest of the small ones would search for the the hidden building, a roar like thunder came from the skies.

They all lifted their head and stared at the darkening sky, feeling the air from the black jet as it landed behind the black building in front of them. Someone had come, and it had been from far away.

* * *

They had told him the night before. His grandfather had just arrived and would see him the next day. It was the next day now, but still, there was no sight of him. He had eaten his breakfast. No sound of when he would come. He had begun reading a new book. No sign of the man coming closer after the first chapter. Finally, he had given up, and now, he had moved to the bathroom to get a shower. He would not exhaust himself with training with his blade today.

When he came out from the shower with new clothes on, he was met by the sight he had waited for the all day. The old man sat on a chair by the dinner table, the food placed in front of him and some of it on his plate, but he had waited for his grandson to come before he started the meal. But the sight of him... Kai felt frozen to the spot, not feeling as ready to do what he was about to do than when he had thought the plan up.

But to his luck, his grandfather did not notice how he hesitated for a moment. He was too busy watching if the room had been cleaned, and noted the open book on the couch and the dirty plate at the other end of the dinner table with distaste. Then, when the slate had picked himself up and forced himself to move towards the table, the old man finally turned his attention to the teenager. "Come and sit down. Lunch is here, and it looks good, does it not?"

His smile felt slimy, and Kai avoided looking at his face as he sat down in front of the man and took food on to his plate. Unable to do anything about it, Kai was forced to let his grandfather control the conversation, and he was told a lot of things and continuously asked if he could figure out what big event it was that Voltaire had come to celebrate with him. He was asked so many times that the slate felt the usual anger the sight of his grandfather brought him tenfold.

To be honest, the slate had no idea. So when they finally had eaten the food, and the old man just luckily thought they should go for a little walk, the slate took his chance. "Ah-I... Hhhave... so-mmethin... to d-do... fir-ssst," he said slowly and squatted down in front of the bookshelf, looking like he was searching for a place to the book he had been reading earlier. What he did do, on the other had, was setting the book and taking the knife that hid behind.

As he stood up and thought of a way to get it hidden, he was so lucky that the lights went out in the room. It had room turned off a lot through the times, leaving only the yellow light that sometimes plagued him in the night on. But he was so caught up in his plans that he did not notice that even that yellow light was no longer making the furniture black silhouettes. So while his grandfather cursed, he took the knife down in his pants on the side of his hip.

Making sure the belt held the knife by his belt, yet in a way he could take it and swing it fast. Then he turned to his grandfather. "Ah... Wait... a mo-ment." He then went to find the flashlight Boris had put in the drawers beside his bed, and turned it on. "... Where?" he then asked, motioning for the elderly man to lead the way to wherever they were going. "... L-light... comes... Soon," he promised the man as they walked through the halls.

They walked downwards. No surprise, since the slate knew he lived at the near top of the building. But they went further down than he had expected, until they were near where he thought he had been trapped with his old, dear teammates. He missed the- No. He definitely did not. Besides, only Tyson was still alive of them. And that is if he actually have survived with the others. And Tyson probably hated him anyway... There was nothing left of his team...

The thought made him sad, and he did not even have to hide it behind a mask. It took incredibly long time for them to fix the lights, and it was the whole building. Normally, it was only parts of it, but this time, there were no lights in any of the halls they passed. And when they stared at the cell he had been in the first year, the old man began to speak again, having been silent ever since the walk began. And the slate took his hand down to the knife, ready.

"You know... It has been such a long time. This day is special, even though you seem not to know. I guess it is hard to keep track of time?" His words... They were so soft. So caring. The slate could not even make himself draw the blade, so shocked to hear that tone in that voice. He could not remember it ever have been like that before. "It is something to celebrate, and my gift to you is, that I will take you back with me to Florida."

Another surprise that made Kai take his hand off the blade. Were they... Would he... Seriously? It had been his dream before the coma. To come over and outside. To feel that his grandfather cared for him. To feel that he was trustworthy and important. It was like a tale coming true, a spell of happiness and luck that had been cast over his broken body.

Unfortunately, the spell was broken at the man's next words. "Boris told me that you have been training hard with Black Dranzer for a long time now. That you have fought hard to regain the skills you had before the incident. I am so proud of you." Despite the fact that Voltaire had used the words that always was what Kai had tried to get, it was not good enough for the slate to stop and forget what it was that he was just about to do. What he had wanted to do.

It was all not the words. It was not because he had said the only reason he was coming to Florida was because he had trained. No, it was one word in the midst of all the rest. _Dranzer_. "Wh-where... iss... she?" His voice was nothing but a hiss as he turned to stare at his grandfather. All the hate and anger he had build up filled his brain, and he did not even hear it when the flashlight in his metal-hand hit the floor, crushed into pieces. And in the violet eyes, madness gleamed in a blink of red.

"Who?" the old man asked, not really caring for the warning in the voice of the teenager. In his mind, the boy was no threat, weakened and smaller than him. But now, his voice was back to normal. The single word he said was cold and harsh, even though he did not know what it was the other was talking about. He just did not like the tone in the teenager's voice, even if the words were broken and stuttered.

With a another hiss, this one without real words in it, the slate drew the knife and moved closer. "_Dranzer_." The darkness prevented the old man from seeing the blade, and he reacted by laughing. Loudly and provoking, as if he was challenging the slate to continue the threat. As if he wanted to see how far the kid could end up going.

He stopped laughing after a long while and crossed his arms, the slate trying to separated his figure from the rest of the darkness. The only way he was going to be taken serious was with that knife, and for that reason, he had to be precise. If he missed, his grandfather would have a reason to laugh at him. If he ended up hurting him, the old man would react violently. Neither of those options seemed very attractive.

"You still think of that weak, little bird, do you? You want to have a chicken, when you have a peacock shining your garden?" Voltaire snorted, watching through the darkness with distaste. "You are pathetic. Just as your weak, little father. Also he did not want the best, preferring t-" The stream of sounds was cut short when he felt the blade at his throat, but he did not even flinch. He just stared through the darkness, to where he knew his grandson was.

Adrenaline was rushing through the slate's body and deluding his mind. When the blade had moved to the throat of his last relative, the hesitation he had expected had not come. Instead, it was pure pleasure. Hurting this body. This body, whose mind had done so much wrong. And he did not even know half of it. "Where?"

Such determination in that broken voice. The words were clearer than they had been even before his injuries. On the other hand, he was not speaking in sentences. And he spoke from the depths of his shattered, bleeding heart.

Voltaire tried to take a step back, but as Kai moved with him, he felt the knife be pressed further in to the throat. He sank, even feeling fear coming over him as he stared blindly in to the darkness. "So this is how we play now, eh, Kai?" The voice was shaking ever so slightly, but it was so little the infuriated teen did not notice. "You are definitely worth far more than you pitiful, little father. You can get my seat for free, if you want..."

"_Where_." The elderly man was shrinking, as he tried to find a way to flee. But his own grandson was backing him though the open door to the same cell that he had been living in when two of his teammates were still alive and the enemies had so clearly been Boris and Voltaire. So crippling about at the walls, the old man was getting more and more trapped by the second. He was like the mouse in the corner. The difference was just that his cat was half his size and definitely not interested to play around.

"Have you ever tried to kill a man, Kai?" the old man asked, his voice raising desperately as the fear succeeded more and more in clouding his normally so clear mind. He had to move around the table where the teen had been eating so long ago, nearly tripping for every step he took. "It is hard to do, I promise you that! It scars the soul for ages."

And though the answer was no, Kai did not stop. Never before had Kai been in a situation where he had intentionally killed a person. Injured people, yeah, he had done that often. But trying to kill? See one being killed by his own hands? But Kai did not care. Not at this particular moment, though it probably should have stopped him already then.

It just did not. "Tell _wh-ere_!" He took his metal-arm and lifted the bigger man in his shirt. "Whe-ere... is... Dranzer?" The man flew through the air and landed hard on the uncomfortable bed.

"Just calm down, Kai!" he screamed, desperately trying to get some sense in to the mind of his grandson. "I will give you everything you want, I promise you! Everything!" The darkness still left him blind. But he felt how the metal-arm rose, heard the machinery as it tried to hit him, and he rolled to the side and attempted to jump off the bed. He got back to his feet, felt the floor under them and tried to run around the slate, the fight first beginning now.

Because of Voltaire's movements, they did not hear the footsteps come. The did not feel how a group of people assembled at the bars to the cell. The only thing in their world was each other, and the fight they had.

But the fight was short. The man could not get around him, as he had moved backwards to the door. So instead, Voltaire charged. Kai reacted. The blade was used. And the sound told that it was planted in the gut of the older man.

He stiffened, the crimson eyes widening as he realized what had happened. Then, he roared with a bearlike sound, pushing the smaller person away from him and forcing him in to the table beside him. The slate moaned in pain, and he felt how his grandfather got a grip in his shirt and tried to pull him backwards again. It seemed his dying act would be trying to take his grandson with him.

But before he was able to harm Kai further, the metal-hand instinctively reached backwards and grabbed it, nearly breaking the bones. Voltaire cursed and tried to kick out, but the teenager turned so they stood facing each other again and stabbed him once more. The man growled, trying to grab the slate's throat, but before he got to, the false hand had gotten before him, and his air supplies were cut short. And yet, the man still fought on. So Kai stabbed him again.

And again.

And again.

Until the body stopped moving, and the slate's ragged breathing was the only sound in the hall. He began calming down slightly, the breathing becoming slower, the heartbeat calming. And his mind began working again, realizing what he had done. His grandfather was nothing more than a silhouette at his feet. Unmoving. Unbreathing. The only thing left unthinking, unliving flesh, meat and bones that would never more be doing any harm to the world.

A sound destroyed the breathless silence. A cry of sorrow, despair and pain. It did not contain words, did not contain humanity. That was the reason Kai realized it was he, who made the sound. Only an animal could make such a sound, and he spoke like an animal. He forced himself to silence, the knife nearly slipping from his blood soaked hands.

"Turn the flashlight on," a voice that he should have recognized said, but his mind was falling into pieces. But when the light was turned on behind him, his hands tensed around the knife again again, and he swirled around to face them, knife raised and that red-gleaming madness back in his eyes. The only thing he could see was the spot of light from the flashlight, that had blinded him and showed the watchers the crimson mess he had caused.

The violet eyes blindly searched for whoever was watching him. It could be Boris for all he knew, and that would be worst case scenario. The problem was that he could see absolutely no possible positive scenario. One tried to speak, but he raised the knife, silently telling them to keep their mouths shut. And they did, afraid to defy him as long as he had the bloody knife in his hand. None tried to near him. Not when he had that look in his eyes.

In the light, a figure began shadowing parts of it. He blinked as he felt it come closer, and the same voice that had demanded them to turn on the lights. "Calm down, Kai. It is just me." The voice was still unknown to him. How come he had not heard them? How could it be that they had managed to come so close without him noticing? He could not even decide how many they were. And the stress caused his heart and breathing to become fast again.

He swung the blade in front him, threatening that one more step could become the dead of the figure. "Be cautious," a new voice said, pleadingly. Male voice, but that one seemed unknown, too, despite that it had meant a lot to him earlier. His mind worked so fast, trying to block out the truth of the world, for he had just made it fall apart. He had just killed his grandfather. His grandfather was his world just as blading was his life. That man could not be dead!

"If I was as 'cautious' as you, we could be trapped here all day," the first voice said. The carrier of the voice seemed superior and brave, but foolish, too. Foolish enough to come too close to Kai when he was falling apart. One more step. That one, stupid step. And the blade flew through the air again, hurting whoever it was. "Shit..." the voice whispered as it fell towards the wall. Kai got a glimpse of something red, but shook it of and raised the knife again.

But this time, one of the others did not care. "Tala!" was yelled, but even by that name, the slate's mind did not recognize his old friends. A new figure came forward, ran forward, and fell on his knees beside the redhead, who was lying on his hands and knees, bleeding from a wound in his stomach. Kai raised the blade, ready to let it fall down upon whoever it was who was stupid, or brave, enough to come forward.

But with the bloody knife in his bloody hand raised far over his head, he froze. That hair. The cap was missing, but the hair... And those eyes, staring up at him with fear, afraid that one he considered his dear friend would end up killing him. The light made him just able to recognize the figure. The knife fell to the ground, the bloody hand falling with it, and the slate's violet eyes stared at him, not understanding what the boy was doing there. "T-t-Tyson?"

It sounded as though it was his surprise, and not his damage that caused him to stutter the word. It seemed he was coming back to earth, and his eyes fell to the redheaded figure underneath his most important teammate. With a gasp, he stepped back, seeing the friend before him having fallen by his hand. The redhead was fighting to keep conscious.

As he stepped backwards he tripped over his dead grandfather's outstretched arm, and when the slate recognized that man, he screamed. As if the death of his grandfather was even worse than the possible death of his friend. He took the old man's hand in his, feeling for a pulse, even though the blood from the man was everywhere in the room and on the teenager's own body. He listened for breathing. He seemed utterly desperate.

"Guess it is not the time for happy birthdays," Rei whispered as he, Lee and a few of the others dragged the slate off the hated, old man as the teen had been ready to try and revive him. The slate was so torn he was fighting them, trying to speak words that was not able to form, but who continuously were spoken in his mind. He was drawn back to a memory he did not remember, a memory that made words go on replay in his head.

"_No... no... Not again... Not again... I can't take this... No... No... I do not want to lose anymore... No... Not again..."_

At the moment, he was labeled insane, and most people just wanted to leave him. Fighting for a man like that meant he had not changed the least. But Tyson and Rei insisted, and Tala threatened he would stay with the slate teen if they left him behind. Besides, neither Tyson or Rei had seen him cry like this before. Act like this before. But they understood that he had lost one, that he had not wanted close to him, but who was his last family. Even if they did not understand that anyone could react like that to this man in particular.

But that was because they did not see what Kai saw. They did not see the apology that had been caught in the old man's throat as the metal-hand tried to strangle him. They did not see that the frown on the old face was not one of disgust, as they used to be, but of sadness. They did not know that the old man had acted on instinct when he had tried to kill his grandson, a reaction from boths' extreme survival-instincts. They did not see the plea of forgiveness in the dead eyes.

In short, they did not know his grandfather.

* * *

The turbine was giant. It looked like an old watermill, though it was not made of wood, and the water dripped off it in a steady pace as the wheel was dragged around by the strong stream in the river. The turbine was so broad it filled nearly all the river, and turned so fast there was no doubt that it was able to make the amount of electricity they were using in the buildings. It seemed so strong, so powerful, that the small group imagined it to be invincible.

In the group, there were only four people. Enrique, Brooklyn, Ming-Ming and Bryan. The group was not one who Bryan had decided. He had only said that Brooklyn was going with him, the only one who the emerald was certain had the amount of power to destroy the turbine. The others... They were only with them because Brooklyn insisted on taking them. They were lying on the ground, hiding in the bushes, on the ground. It was moist, being so near the river.

And it definitely was not something that pleased the little princess or her knight. "Ew, I think I saw a bug!" the girl complained, trying to stand up to get away from the living undergrowth. But there was a camera, watching over the turbine and the area around it, so she would be disposing them if she stood. So the emerald dragged her down, roughly since he did not really care about her and wanted to make his point. "Ouch! Who do you think you are?"

"Silence," he growled, not really understanding why those two should be there, too. "If you do not stay down and keep quiet, I will force that bug into your mouth and make sure you swallow it." The blond made a puking noise, as if even just the thought of it happening gave him nausea. "You too, moneybag."

But the blond did not keep quiet. He just started an argument, instead, and Ming-Ming took his side. And though the harsh words bothered Brooklyn, who normally shivered by the lightest insult since he was so unused to that impolite way of being around people, he kept quiet. Actually, he had been quiet all the walk from they met the river. It was no news, but it had been so bad that the emerald had noticed. And he had been uncharacteristically determined to have those two in their group, too. Bryan was feeling sure that the citrine was hiding something. Something important.

But he let it be and shoved the blond's head in the ground to stop his complaints. It was effective, and he looked to the sky to see how high the sun was. Then toward the camp where he could see small shadows move around. Then, his green eyes were directed towards the place they had found the entrance to the underground-rooms. Behind that one, in the shadow of the trees, he could weakly see something move around. It seemed they were ready to go.

"All seems to be in place. Would you mind launching your blade as quietly as you can?" A pale smile was the answer the emerald got for his words, so weak and pained that his uncaring mind even got worried. It seemed so... different from any other smiles he had ever seen before. It was as if it meant something... something more.

But the emerald decided it was not his responsibility. He did not care for anyone else than himself and his teammates. And the citrine had always been weird. Why should this time be any different than all the last ones? The other times were he had acted weirdly? Besides, no one normally reached their hands out to the white teen anyway.

It seemed impossible to make a beyblade spin properly if it was launched while he was laying the way he was, but Brooklyn still managed to make the black blade turn. It moved through the grass, hidden in the grass as it moved towards the river. It looked mostly like a small animal was running down between the straws, and before anyone got think, something looking mostly like a black lightning flew straight for the turbine.

He had an enormous amount of power in the attack. It was as if he expected something to stop him, an invisible shield, but there was nothing. Instead, the black blade hit the wheel right in the middle, breaking it where it and the building was connected. The only weak spot, and he hit it with an extreme amount of power and a surprising amount of accuracy. The metal sighed, the wheel continued moving, but it was no longer turning a whole system.

And slowly, as the water forced the turbine to continue turning, the giant metal-wheel slipped off. It hit the bottom of the river. They were sitting so close to it that it might fall down over them, a big shadow swaying unsteadily as it did not know which way to go or what to do next. The wide eyes of the blue-haired girls widened even further, and she and two of the boys back away in case it would fall in their direction. All except for Brooklyn, who directed Zeus back to his side, then sent it hammering into the wheel again, causing it to tilt back and hit the wall of the building.

From there, it slowly began turning, running down the river until it no longer got support from the wall. With a cracking noise, it hit the ground, and that seemed to be the sign that made the rest of them moving. But the group of four stayed put, waiting for the next step. And it came, as guards moved into view to see what had happened. Once again, the citrine used Zeus, and it a few second, the scene that was terrifying to watch was over.

The first one to stand was Brooklyn, and he caught the blood soaked beyblade. "We need to get over the river again," he said and moved towards the giant wheel. The others just followed him as he narrowed the apatite eyes as he neared the piece of metal that was no long useable. Walking in to the water before the others could argue, he got a grip on the metal and dragged himself upwards, fighting not to be dragged with the stream. Soaking the once again perfectly white clothes as he climbed the wheel and began walking over it without looking back at them.

After a little thought, Bryan was the next to go, and he felt the strength of the water nearly tumbling him over. It was obvious a person as small and thin as Ming-Ming would first stop going downstream at the bottom of the mountain, and that was probably not while she was still alive. So without beginning to climb but instead standing as steady as he could, his head reached out to her, demanding her to come towards him.

After some insecure thinking, she stepped out in the water and fell sidewards the moment the power of the water hit her. The emerald just barely got a grip on her collar and shoved her towards the wheel in a surprisingly gentle manner for his normal way of acting. She even threw him a small smile, before letting him help her climb the wheel.

Earlier, they had thrown over a tree with the help from Falborg, and then crossed the river using it. But this was a good shortcut, even if it was hard for a few of them to cross. Throwing a questioning glance towards the blond, Bryan offered him help, too. Looking at the fast water, Enrique decided he would be more sure if he just let the emerald help him. With those thoughts in his head, he took a step in to the water and gripped the gray-haired teen's hand.

With much effort, the blond got to the other side, too, and Bryan was left to get over on his own, balancing on the complex construction the wheel was. On the other side, the emerald was on his way towards the building the turbine had been attached to. But once again, the white teen stopped him. "We go underground," he said, and before the emerald got to argue, Brooklyn continued. "There are more going in to that building than the underground."

It made the emerald nod, and they moved as fast as they could through the grass. A runway where the airplane from yesterday was standing was to their right, and to the left, they could see the back of the building they had been trapped in. And in front of them, the entrance to the tunnels of the underground lied, its doors opened by the intruders.

The entrance to the tunnel had front towards the forest, which meant away from them. That also meant they had to move around it if they did not was to fall ten feet down into the hole that been dug, so they could use the stairs. But the emerald did not care for it and just jumped, landing on the ground in front of the door, looking into the open mouth of the darkness of hell. That he was actually going in to a building like this again... He had to be insane.

If Boris was in there, he definitely had to be insane.

When the rest of the group had used the stairs to get to the door, he was already gone, walking in the darkness all alone. The girl did not want to follow, but a few kind words from Enrique got her convinced, and hand in hand, the two got inside. Brooklyn, on the other hand, was blessed by darkness, and had not hesitated when he saw Bryan's back through the thick fog of lacking light.

They walked slowly to both keep silent and not to end up being surprised by corners and end up walking in to the walls. After a while, Bryan let his one hand follow the wall beside him, just to feel where he was going. To his surprise, it was made of dirt instead of bricks, and every once in a while, he felt his palm pass by roots and animal holes. Behind him, he was quite sure the rest of the three had taken each others hands to keep together, and he could hear their footsteps, but to him, he did not really care if they were there or not.

In the tunnel, they passed many crossroads, and he decided to take the way diagonally right, turning every time a road crossed theirs. After walking for god knows how long, Bryan felt the dirt and roots become bricks, just like the ones in the other building. And after three more steps, his hand touched steel. "Stop," he commanded, and Ming-Ming screamed at the sudden sound. Silence had been the only thing until then, and she thought they had met a guard.

Bryan ignored her, though, letting Brooklyn and Enrique be the ones to assure her that she actually knew the voice that had been speaking. The emerald felt on the steel, searching for something. And he found it. A handle. It was a door, and as he felt at its top, he could feel bars blocking a small window. He straightened up, so he could see through the door, and could see the weakest beams of the sun inside the room. "Hello?" he said, and heard something move.

Something passed through the light for a second. It was moving on all four, like an animal, and his instincts made him move backwards just before something scratched out his eyes. "Who are you, talking to me in such a harsh voice?" something said, but Bryan was too preoccupied picking himself up from the floor to answer. The hand searched for someone to grab. And the voice sounded hoarse, and yet young, as if it was just a teenager who spoke.

When he got back to his feet, Bryan moved forwards and was able to grab the stranger's arm and force it sidewards, against one of the bars. The stranger hissed in pain and clawed at him with his other hand, but only managed to get that one caught, too. "Who are you, attacking without knowing the face of your opponent?" the emerald asked, sneering at him in a harsh voice that was nothing compared to the uncaring he had given before.

"I am sorry, I am sorry, I did not mean to, sir," the voice begged, and Bryan let him go. Immediately after he had been freed, the hands disappeared from the window. "M-my name is Lon Shen. I did not mean to harm you." The name made the wheels turn in the emerald's mind, and he drew a conclusion. "Turn the lights on, please."

"Brooklyn, can you destroy the look on the door?" the emerald asked, moving to the side. Then, he spoke to the one inside. "Move backwards if you want to keep all limps. Your a neko-jin, are you not? Some of your friends move around somewhere in the building. But we might as well free you, anyway." The sound of cracking told that Brooklyn had done his job, and the door opened noisily. "Do not follow us. Go first left, then right, and continue like that till you reach a open door. There, you hide in the trees until you see some of your own kind, or teenagers."

The owner of the voice came through the door, the darkness still preventing them from seeing anything. "Who are you?" he asked, just as he had done before. This caused the emerald to growl, his eyes searching through the darkness to make sure the stranger would not try to surprise him with an attack. He was not very comfortable with others, and a stranger he could not even see definitely was not one he felt too sure of.

For that reason, it was the others who had to answer for the head of the group. "We were prisoners in another building for some months ago, but escaped. We did not know what was underground, but met the neko-jins in the forest and found out there were more people, and together, we came back to try to get the rest free and destroy the people who did this to us," Enrique said, but Bryan made a demanding sound to continue. "Sorry, he is so troublesome, gotta go."

When the three left behind finally began walking, Bryan already turned the next corner. But in a flash of light that sought around the next corner, he moved back to the former one. "Silence," he whispered to them, listening to the conversation coming from one guard to the other. It was Russian, and they spoke fast.

"What are they saying?" Ming-Ming asked, her wide blue eyes visible through the darkness in the weak light from the faint flashlight. Two of them seemed insecure... From what Bryan could determine, Brooklyn was just calm and seemed to wait for something to happen. Maybe, there was a slight insecurity, he was slightly uneasy about something. But it was not as obvious as the other two. The emerald, on the other hand, was indifferent.

He listened harder, trying to separate the fast words. "They do not know what to do. They are uncertain. Prisoner have escaped, he light has turned off, and they can not contact the ones in the other buildings. They are on their way out. If we can, we must stop them before they go- Boris. Boris is down here. They have been looking for him, but he is not were they think he should be..." The emerald the gun and loaded it, the sound making the light flash in their direction. "Be ready," the emerald said in a sinister voice, looking the three of them over.

Ming-Ming and Enrique had a gun each, and both of them had their new whips ready and Brooklyn got his blade ready. Even after all this time, he refused to even touch a gun, and a knife and definitely a whip had the same rules. It may have been true that he was able to kill a man with his blade in seconds, but he had his principles.

With a sound, the emerald told them ready, and in a flash, he was out in the bright light of the flashlight. Guns were shot, but most bullets came from him, and he fled into cover around the next corner. The guard yelled to each other, and they took two running steps forward, expecting the emerald to be alone in the operation of infiltrating.

But he was not alone. Out from the corner, just as the enemy had let their guard down because of Bryan, Enrique and Ming-Ming had guns up and experienced shooting at living humans for the first time. But they did, the bullets flying from the guns while a black lightning hid the flashlight and crushed it into pieces. Chaos ensured, darkness reigning again, though the black beyblade caused sparkles to fly.

Behind the corner on the other side, Bryan stood. He knew that he had not hit a single enemy, but it still had caused the chaos that meant the rest of their group would be able to finish it. And he had seen a look in the eyes of the girl he had not thought she could bring forth. She might just be better than he wanted to admit, despite her annoying voice.

While observing this, he pressed a wound he had gotten on the lower arm. It was not his firearm, but it still could be a problem. He had felt two bullets fly closely past his head, and was not sure if they had hit. But a wound he was certain of was the one on the arm, since he could feel the blood make the gun slippery. And without any light, he could not be sure if it was something he had to do anything about. It did not feel bad.

From out of nowhere, a hand touched his head, and he jump backwards and raised his hands, ready to fight. From the surprised yelp he heard from the person in front of him, he understood it was Brooklyn. "Is anyone wounded? And is the enemy dead?" he asked, feeling the hand on his head once more. Was he wounded? He had not felt anything when he heard the bullet fly past his head. Why was he letting Brooklyn touch him? He realized he actually trusted the teen.

That was something new. Trusting someone outside the confined group they had was not normal. Especially not someone like Brooklyn, but he did not move as he was inspected by the citrine. "None other than you. And, of course, the enemy. Your wound from the crash has begun bleeding again. I think a bullet passed through, but it does not bleed badly. Want to continue?" The hands wiped some of the blood off and moved them away.

"Only my arm, but it is not bad either. We can go on now." He did not care for the sobbing from the teenage girl, but just continued moving. Ming-Ming had no problem had in the moment, but now, she was regretting her actions, knowing that at least one of her shots had caused a death. Enrique was with her, the one of them with most experience in girls, but even he was not able to stop the tears in her eyes.

With a sigh, the emerald took the gun back in his belt. The only thing he could hear was her sobbing, and he was quite sure it could be heard many halls away. In the corner of his eyes, he saw something yellow. But he was not sure, and when he looked up from fumbling at the belt. There was nothing. Still, the sobs were the only thing he was able to hear. So when a flashlight was turned on only eight feet in front of him, he was taken by surprise.

He tried to get the gun back in his hand, but before he got to, he was stopped by a nightmare. "You was surprised? I thought you would never be. Like anything else forming in your mind, surprise is an illusion created in the weaker part of your mind." He was frozen to the spot, his hand flying over the gun. Boris. "Straighten up, boy," Boris' voice demanded, and he listened. His hand was still on the gun, but he could not get it down to the weapon.

He thought he had gotten to know every feeling there was. He thought he would never be surprised again, and never would find one he could not handle. But now, he met one he had not yet tried to challenge. It seemed like fear... But it was not. It was the feeling that was the grandfather of fear and father to angst, so far greater than anything else he remembered to have met. His body was frozen while his mind was speeding out of control.

It really was his nightmares coming true.

Enrique and Ming-Ming stood and did not really know what to do, staring at the spotlight that was set upon the one who had controlled the group and kept them together, despite his harsh behavior. They counted on him, and he had proven a better leader than they had hoped. Now, he stood there, not even reacting to their words. And all the while they were staring at him with awe, Brooklyn moved towards the wall, that awaiting look in his eyes.

The flashlight was removed from Bryan, but he was still frozen to ice. So instead, it was Ming-Ming, Enrique and Brooklyn, who were the man's targets. "You always had easy to tears," the man said, and the two stared at them, eyes narrowed. There was the sound of a gun getting ready, but it was not those two who did it. "Good bye."

At his words, Enrique threw himself to the side and moved in front of Ming-Ming. He cried out as the bullet hit through his chest, and he fell to the ground, his body cramping in pain. But he was still alive. Another shot, a new body fell to the ground, Ming-Ming dead the moment the bullet hit her forehead. Boris turned the flashlight to Brooklyn, who was trying his hardest to look frightened. "You did not expect that, did you? Did your visions fail you, stupid boy?"

The gun was raised, Boris now standing just beside the Bryan. And Brooklyn closed his eyes, his hand gripping his beyblade so hard that his knuckles turned white, and his mouth opened to a whisper. "And so it ends..."

* * *

You know the funny thing about this chapter? I just wrote the scene that gave me the idea of this story. I had... you can call it a vision of Kai, standing with a bloody knife and killing his grandfather and maybe killing some of his friends while screaming to get his Dranzer back. The rest of this story has evolved from that little thought.

But Bryan's part of the story interests me just as much as Kai's, even though I have the feeling that I could just dance around my house after having come this far in the story. This is a great chapter.

But with that said, I have only stupid things to continue with. For that reason, I will stop my writing before I seem too insane. Enjoy in joy ^^ (By the way, the snow is nearly gone at the moment! Maybe that's why I am so happy all of a sudden...)


	24. Death's prophecy fulfilled

Have nothing to say, other than sorry for the lateness... I've got a depression. I have no inspiration, and sometimes my mood is so down that taking a shower every morning is mission impossible.

Disclaimer: Former chapters, please.

Warning: Once again, former chapters, please.

Reviews:

Cherry-Toxic: I'm really sorry that I won't answer you this time, but I really can't. My mood is so low I can't find the energy to do the most trivial things of life, and I just... don't think I am able to give you an answer you deserve. So instead, I give you something far more fitting, and far more emotional (at least I think). Take a look down.

Dedication: Cherry-Toxic, for giving me that review. Without it, this chapter would not have been made before many months, when I finally have picked myself up. So I thank you a hundred times for this, even if it still is a late update. I here give you a piece of my heart in the form of my story. Enjoy.

And then, the chapter...

* * *

Death's prophecy fulfilled

* * *

Footsteps were heard through the halls, the echoes ringing from wall to wall all the way through the darkness of the building. Alongside with the thundering sound of clattering feet, one person's very hard breaths hit the walls, but what came back was far lower in the scale of sounds. Even so, it was those breaths and not the many echoes of seven pairs of feet, which the group heard. And even worse than for the rest, Kai felt his insides turn for every wavering breath.

He calmed down. It had taken time and effort, but he was no longer trying to get back to his not always so beloved grandfather. Now, on the other hand, his mind was welling up to the point where he nearly could not bear it, and that wavering breath was a constant reminder of the real world and his deeds. But all the while, he could feel himself deny what had happened, the memory of his bloodied grandfather trying to slip away into the blur of forgotten memories.

The slate's mind was trying to repress the memory of his doing. The only thing that made him still conscious about the happening was what he had done with Tala. They had not yet seen what had happened with the redhead, but it was his breathing that cut in the heart like a knife. They did not know how bad it was, it there was any serious harm, and knowing the redhead, Kai was sure he was hiding half of it if it really was serious.

Still, the redhead was leading them, since he had memorized the map of the building and they were trying to get out as fast as possible. They had succeeded their mission easier than they has hoped, even if the circumstances were quite different from what they had imagined. They thought they would come out with a strong and stoic teen, who might need a little convincing, but did follow them in the end. And if not, Tala _had_ promised the slate he would kill him.

They had not excepted what they got. A desperate teen, ending up killing a man of their nightmares to get his bitbeast back, but who ended up becoming a murderer and harm his friend too, broken by the thought of having ended a life and even more broken that it was his last family. That Tala had been harmed only made it worse. And they had not even noticed that his silence was not the usual, and that the mechanical noise they heard was not imagination.

They did not yet know just how broken the teen had become in all his months alone in the enemy camp. They would first realize part of it when they came outside in the light, and they were on their way to. There just was someone who controlled destiny, and this someone seemed no to like the survivors of the disastrous end of the world they all had known. They did not see the flicker of light before it was too late.

The guards turned the corner, and both they and the teens stared dumbfounded at the sight before the guns began firing. Up in the front, Tala groaned in pain and sought to the wall to seek at least a little cover, and from what the blinding light told them, he was clenching his arm. Besides them, Lee moaned too, falling over and hitting the ground like a rag doll. They had nearly run out of ammo, and the rest of them jumped away from the light, all having felt a bullet somewhere on their bodies. All except Kai, whose metal-hand seemed not to be damaged by guns.

They suddenly heard more bullets, but these came from behind. Panic coming into every part of their beings, they all threw themselves to the ground and tried to get out of the way, believing dead was just around the corner. They heard barking, dogs coming from behind, but they did not look up when they heard and felt the animals fly past them. The chaos seemed never ending, bullets flying past their heads, arms and other parts of their bodies.

But then, everything went silent. They did not dare moving, not believing they were still alive and feeling deaf from the sounds of bullets in the too confined hall-way. They heard footsteps, and more barking from these weird dogs, the light from a flashlight flying past their bodies. Footsteps, walking past them, and a few seemed to dare lift their heads.

One of the dogs stopped up right in front of Kai and sniffed at him, or rather, the metallic arm. He, too, lifted his head to see what happened, and since the light flew past them just that second, he recognized the brown eyes and broad head of a Caucasian ovcharka. It made him jump, since he preferred cats by far, and he stood up and leaned away, afraid that it might bite him. It was no phobia, only slight fear, and this dog reminded him of a bear.

The light flickered past him again as he tried to move away from the beast without getting noticed, and he heard an extremely girlish giggle. The violet eyes shot up towards the giggling, but found only the beam of a flashlight blinding his good eye. "You are afraid of dogs, are you?" a voice said, and it was impossible to mistake. That slight hate when she spoke to him could only be Katyenka. But she was nice enough to call the dog back to her.

"Everyone can stand up," another well-known voice said, and Kai could not help but growl when he heard the rough voice of the bearded soldier, Maxim. If the darkness had not been there, they would have seen how his face twitched, the regret of not having killed the teen and having made a cripple instead bugging his mind. But they were unable to see it, and everybody who could stand up from their poor hiding places, clutching their wounded limps.

Tyson, Rei and Mathilda were able to, Tyson having his hand shot so he missed a finger, Rei holding his chin where a bullet had passed by, and Mathilda seemingly unharmed. Lee was laying on the ground where he had been hit, clutching his stomach, his breathing pained and eyes only half-conscious. Mystel had lost consciousness, and it was impossible to see where his wounds were, though a pool of blood had already formed. The blood only made it harder to determine the source.

And fighting hard to get to his feet but failing badly was Tala. The knife-wound was getting to him, and without a free hand to help him to his feet when the other was preoccupied with pressing his stomach, he could not do it on his own. It was only by a bit of determination and a big amount of luck that he still was conscious, and the others could not see how unfocused his eyes were since he closed them at the blinding light when Maxim turned the flashlight at him.

Despite his mind still trying to block the truth of his doings, Kai immediately went over to the friend he had injured and passed both Lee and Mystel in the process. They did not matter, and since both Rei and Tyson looked nearly unharmed, they meant nothing, either. But as you could imagine, Tala struggled to get him away, not wanting help even if he needed it. That was just how the world of him and his teammate was.

Behind the slate, Tyson glowered at Maxim and Katyenka, holding his bleeding hand and trying not to look like he was about to faint from the pain. "What are _you_ doing here?" he spat, and the guard had to hide his surprise. The soldier had worked with the former world champion, and had doomed him to be lazy, frightened and weak. He had not noticed the determination in him when it was about the well-being of his friends and the world.

But Katyenka was as always calm and collected, if not a bit harsh, and she did not even waste her time on being surprised in the situation. "Helping you, if I saw it right." With her hand, she held the leashes to the three dogs she had had with her, all of them young Caucasian ovcharkas. That did not make them seem less deadly. "But we might ask you the same. What are you doing here and why the hell would any of you come back?"

"We had to bring back Kai," Rei said from down beside Lee, and through the darkness, Katyenka and Maxim shared a look towards the slate teen. Kai had finally given up on helping his friend, and instead tried to determine how many people they had in their own group, but the darkness made it impossible to see. Closing his eyes and taking the position against the wall he was known for, he began listening for the amount of throats breathing and footsteps. This, of course, made him look like he did not care about the reason they had come at all. A hurtful misunderstanding.

The flashlight flickered between the slate and the neko-jin-boy, before he realized this was a face he had not yet seen. And he frowned through the darkness. "Are you a neko-jin? How did you survive? I heard Voltaire had personally gone after you and your kind," he said. At the sound of his grandfather, Kai flinched from his place by the wall, but to his luck, the flashlight was not on him anymore. He would not have liked them to see his weakness. Not anymore.

Rei just shrugged, trying to do what he could for his wounded friend, even though darkness prevented him from doing much. The light was on them, but it did not help him one bit, since shadows kept getting in the way. He ended up giving up for now, and waited for them to get outside. So he looked up at the guards, looking suspicious. "You work for Boris, right?" he said, obviously not trusting the men and women that had just saved them.

Which was understandable. But Maxim still gritted his teeth at the boy's words. "Yes, but we have kind of... Changed our minds. This is the group of people who works for Boris, but no longer... shares his opinions. Or we are the ones in this building, that is. The scientists are far more skeptic, but they does not work here." The soldier scratched his beard to think, before he said something in Russian that the others did not understand. Something that began an argument.

The slate located at least ten different voices, which meant their numbers were bigger than their own group, and that they could have killed them all if that was what they wanted. But they would not, or else they would not have saved them from their colleagues. They were safe for now, but they might only be supposed to give information, then they would get killed. And no one can blame the teen for not trusting the Russian soldier.

The things said spoke against this, for the Russian words were all about whether or not the group could leave their friends behind in the hands of Boris and help the escapees survive and fight. If they should leave behind their scientist friends and cooks, who could not help them much anyway, and do what they might have been supposed to do for a very long time. It was wrong to let a group of teenagers fight alone.

It took them only a few minutes of talking before Katyenka crossed her arms and turned to the teens again, her dogs standing around her and waiting for her orders. "Would you mind inviting us into your group? You need help to get out of here, with so many wounded, and you did not seem to have any weapons." She sounded slightly patronizing, making Tala stand again. Or at least try to, since he was still having trouble doing so.

"We _do_ have weapons," he growled, and her giant fighting dogs growled back at him and crouched down to get ready to fight him, even though their tails had found their way in between their hind legs. They feared him. "It is the ammo that is the problem. And don't you dare talk down to me, lady, or I will make you suffer." He did not seem very able to fulfill his threat, his whole body shaking from stress and pain. But he had gotten on his feet and was staring with a deadly look towards the woman.

Yet she was impressed, her animal's animals scaring her just a little. She could still remember him, the redheaded boy who refused to stop, even after he had been whipped a hundred times, and so, she just bowed her head. "I am sorry you took it that way," she said, before turning away from the teen and to Maxim. "Lead them outside. I will find you, if you just go to the usual place and makes sure to collect the whole group. I have to find some things first."

From the side, Kai was watching them as the light from the flashlight shifted from one person to another. He felt himself slip, inside his head. How the steps he took of the road of life wavered and came to a halt, a small boy that he was supposed to have been fighting to keep him from falling. It was more important than keeping going. And this small boy took a look around, before taking away the last of the memory of his dead grandfather and tried another step.

Something seemed to set itself inside his throat and try to choke him. A stone fell down on his stomach and pressed on it, giving him the feeling of nausea. But the new steps could be taken, without falling, even if the steps were heavy and driving to the edge of insanity. For Kai Hiwatari was never allowed to fall on his path, no matter how many trees fell in front of him or how many streams forced him to wet his feet. Or how many avalanches made it impassable.

But he was able to move on now, even if the baggage pressed in the stomach and the back of his mind. He opened his eyes again, and then realized most of the people around him did not mean a hell of a lot to him. The thought had come sudden, like lightning from a clear sky, and it burned its mark clearly in his mind. He might as well just grab Tyson, Rei and Tala and leave without looking back. And he would have no reason to look back. Not a single one.

Unfortunately for him and his new thoughts, not even the coldest of his three more interesting friends was going to leave anyone behind. Katyenka moved away from them and turned on a flashlight of her own, making Tala look her way again. He had otherwise been busy sliding down the wall when their movements craved his attention.

"Do not turn it on," he advised the woman, bringing the attention back to himself again. He knew their next question, and for that reason continued before they got the chance to ask. "Our people recognize the guards by the light. You can see the light flicker even before they realize you are there, and can attack and kill them before they get to realize they are being attacked." There was a small smile coming on to the woman's face.

And though it was unseen, that small smile was heard clearly in her voice. "My guess is that it is that gray-haired, emotionless boy who figured that out. What was his name... Bryan, right? He was interesting." That was the last thing she said before she left, letting the flashlight be turned off and the steps be long and fast. "Make sure to get them all out alive, Maxim, or I will not forgive you," were her last words before disappearing into the blackness.

Maxim was just about to answer her when the redhead began coughing badly, losing his balance after having been standing without the help from the wall behind him for one too many minutes. The lack of support had caused him to strain his body too much, and he fell flat on to the floor, his body lying limply on the cold stone floor the second it landed there. But it was not Kai, who ran over to him to help, even if he wanted to.

No, for Kai was captured in a weak feeling of disinterest as he watched one of the guards, who did not even know the teen, sit down beside him. Through a fog of thoughts he did not even really hear, the words in his head not clear enough to have any meaning. The only thing he really noticed about them was that they were there, and that they gave him a numb feeling in his brain as he debated to himself if he should help one of his dearest friends or not.

But while he did not have any wish to act, others reacted for him. "He has blood on his cheeks," the guard told with a desperate voice, lifting the redhead in his arms. "Maxim, we have to get out. Now. And take all of them with us." The soldier nodded, agreeing with him. And after every one of the unconscious or wounded teenagers had a pair of arms holding them, the flashlight got turned off, and they began walking towards the nearest exit as fast as possible.

The slate followed them, the thoughts still trying to get sorted out in his mind. Though he had to admit... The numb feeling was far better than feeling anything. Even if there was a stone on his stomach and a sting in his chest, he felt better than he had done in a long time. If the feeling would only last, he could live through life without having to suffer any more disappointments. Never again would there be anything to lose, never again would he be hurt.

But they reached the nearest exit. And they opened the door. And a cold breeze hit his face and the light hurt his eyes, as he was invited back to the world he now saw for the first time for a year.

* * *

Just as the whisper left the air to the silence, a gunshot was heard, ripping through the halls with scaring strength. The echoes clashed from wall to wall, making it seem like a whole volley of shots was raining down on them. It seemed so much louder than when Ming-Ming and Enrique had gotten shot, and Bryan closed his eyes and covered his ears to flee from the true world and in to his own. He knew he should have done something to stop this, but he just could not.

When the sound finally petered out and made the surroundings bearable, the emerald eyes opened again, and pale hand fell from his ears. The flashlight was still on Brooklyn, and Boris' smile had gotten more troubled and annoyed. Leaning against the wall, the citrine had his eyes on Bryan, and his body was trembling badly. A red pool of blood was forming a deadly contrast on the white clothes by his stomach, his breathing was shaky and gasping.

The blue pools were foggy as he opened his mouth once more, looking like he was about to welcome his last meal once again. But it was words that came out of his mouth. "Bry-Bryan... D-don't let Kai th-throw aw-way Black Dr-dranzer... He'll need it... A-and he-he won't speak, because he-he cannot. He-he is wo-wounded." The teen's hand was forming into fists, so hard that blood came out between his fingers. "A-and… Go to the furthest part o-of this place-"

"Shut your mouth!" Boris spat, firing a new bullet, this time in the boy's chest. Bryan lifted his hand to grab the man, but one look from his old tormentor, and the hand froze in the air before him. And so, the adult turned his victim again, a victim who was still standing, though his breathing was even worse than before. "Now you will not last for long, you bloody _monster!_ I cannot understand why I ever have trusted such a _freak_ like you to work for me!"

Even though tears were forming in his eyes at the words, him having heard them so many times that he had come to believe them, Brooklyn was still only staring towards the teen beside the purple-haired man. "Lo-look out for your captain... A-and the f-" Roaring like thunder, new bullets soared through the air and hit the white teen.

He fell to the ground, and Boris turned to the still living teen. The emerald just wanted to shrink away, and he backed against the wall he already stood at, but Boris still neared him. He felt the hand around his neck, the other hand at the bottom of his shirt, clawing it out. The teen's mind turned blank as he turned away and bit his lip. And through the darkness that now had fell around them, the man could see the bitten lip and feel the contempt in the boy.

"You have changed." The boy turned his head in surprise, as if it was the worst thing in the world. "You destroyed all my hard work on you. You are my biggest mistake, you know that?" The man began to strip off the clothes of the boy, making Bryan shiver every place their skin touched each other. "I should never have made you a part of a group. That was my mistake. You were made perfect, but you were not fit for teams. And you never were a blader, you were a computer, a machine for killing. So you lost to the cat, and our plans were destroyed."

Still trying to flood through the wall behind him, the emerald gritted his teeth and fought back the tears forming in his eyes. "I-I am sorry, sir. It was never my... intentions." Boris laughed at the words and drew a knife from his belt, the hand on the boy's throat never moving. With a malicious look in the man's eyes, the knife cut through the shirt, slow and painful whenever the knife hit the skin of his stomach and chest. Finally, Boris ripped the torn pieces off.

It was a weird relief mix with new buckets of the all-soaking feeling of fear when it happened, and the cold air caressed his pale upper body. "I know it was not your intentions. You never had any intentions, only orders to follow. And I never got to punish you for doing it." He smiled again, but this time differently. Lovingly. His free hand traveled down the muscular body he had gotten other to make. "But now that you have feelings, I might as well..."

Bryan stiffened and his eyes dilated to twice the size when a pair of lips landed on his own. It was extremely tender, considering everything, and he did not even notice the hand going into his pants. He did not answer, and that seemed to annoy the man quite a bit. He wanted to get an answer, and Bryan could feel it when the kiss got rougher. It made him swallow the pride he did not have and force himself kiss back, begging willingness would make Boris kinder.

And he could feel the lips on his own grow a smile as the hand disappeared from his neck and down to his pants. The man began undoing them, all the while caressing him. The teen grit his teeth and turned his head away, closing his eyes tightly to hide the tears that rolled down both his cheeks. He did not want this... And all the while, he could not make it stop. It was like in his nightmares, the helplessness that came over him at the sound of those words.

The sound of feet awoke him again, and he turned his head the way he had come. Boris did so too, letting go of the pants he had just gotten opened and finding the gun and flashlight again. The light that grew as he turned it on fell on a big group of adult neko-jins, one of them with a gun raised and pointed directly at the man. A second of panic hit the emerald, and before the neko-jin got to pull the trigger, his right hand flew upwards, towards Boris' face.

The hand hit the underside of the man's head, and it flew upwards. He was taller than Bryan, but the force of the hand had been so strong that his feet left the ground, before he fell backwards down on the ground. The flashlight lit up the bodies of Ming-Ming, Enrique and Brooklyn, the pool of their mixed blood making the group of adults gasp. It was a grotesque sight, pieces of the girl's brain lying everywhere, her eyes staring dead up at the ceiling.

Bryan did not waste his time looking at the dead, letting the neko-jins find out that Enrique was the only one alive on their own. Instead, he bowed down by his tormentor and felt for a pulse. Then he gritted his teeth, his hand curling around the neck of the unconscious man, his nails digging in to the flesh. In his mind, he felt a wish that they would either had come sooner or not have come at all. A part of him wished to have done it all the way.

A sick part. He hated that part. He obviously was insane for actually wanting it. Something was growing in the pit of his stomach, and even if he could not name it, he wanted it to disappear. Now that Boris was lying there, unable to say anything, unable to control his former experiment, the hate was growing in the emerald's body. It flooded his inside with wild, black flames, and he just wished to beat him up and ignore the world around him.

The problem was just that the world still was there. "Is he dead?" a voice said, and the green eyes were directed upwards. A neko-jin stood over him, staring down at the unmoving face of the purple-haired man, but he still noted the nod from the teenager. Noticing his pants were still opened, he stayed sitting down, knowing he would not be able to close it without getting noticed as long as the man was looking. "What were you doing?"

"He tried to strangle me," Bryan said, taking his hand away from the still pulsing neck. It was a lie, but there was no sign on it on the emerald's face. The only thing showing the lie was his pants, and when the neko looked over at the people by the bodies, the teen stood and erased the last evidence, hoping the darkness hid the action when the man turned back to him a little too fast. Then the emerald moved over towards the bodies, to see if Enrique was still alive.

But a hand on his shoulder stopped him. "And he cut your shirt into nice strips while you two fought in a fight of life and death?" the neko-jin asked, obviously suspicious. The emerald avoided looking in at him, forcing himself not to bite his lip. The man forced him to turn around and look up at him. "Tell me what he did." It was long time since a stranger had spoken so softly to him. He could not remember last time it had happened. "Tell me what he did to you."

This kindness just did not impress the teenager, who shook his head, refusing to speak. "He did nothing. I am just so unfortunate that we have history." Then he roughly shook the hand off himself and sat down besides the blond Italian after making sure some people stood guard. He pushed the people around the blond away and leaned down to listen to the teen's breathing. He stayed down there for about ten seconds, before shivers rolled down his spine.

"He was alive last time I looked at him," he whispered, biting down on his lower lip. As he sat up, his eyes fell on the bloody blue and red mess that was the remains of the girl. She was as dead as a stone, her brain blown into pieces, the gray mass proof enough of it. The bullet had gotten right through her head, breaking in through the middle of her forehead, and the tears seemed to still fall from those beautifully blue eyes. So he did not have to check her.

His eyes continued their search, and fell on the citrine. The white teen was laying facedown, blood spilling out of his body in a fast-growing pool. He had to have at least twenty bullets in him. Boris had nearly emptied the magazine on him, letting his anger take the better of him. There was no doubt that he was dead-

Was that a twitch of Brooklyn's fingers? The green eyes of Bryan narrowed and he stood to walk over to the teen on the floor, just as the neko-jins gentle turned the body over. The wounds on the body were hidden by red liquid, and the citrine-haired head fell backwards, no muscles trying to support it. The man holding the body took his head down and listened to his breathing the same way as Bryan had done before. "He is alive."

That was surprising news, considering his wounds should be even worse than Enrique's. The emerald just continued watching how they tried to bandage the wounds, the only treatment they could provide while being down here. Then one of the adults stood and stared directly towards the emerald, the flashlight lighting up his face. "One of us has to go up and find some way to treat him if he should have any chance of survival." No doubt who was in his thoughts.

Bryan was just not very happy about these suggestions. "I still have things to do down here," he said, shaking his head. "You will have to do it. You are so many anyway, you can let a group of people take him up in the light and still have people enough to stay down here without danger of getting outnumbered."

"Then you will stay with us." It was obvious by the look on Bryan's face that it did not suit him, but he knew it was stupid to travel in enemy territory all alone. It just was what he wished to do, since it was far easier and he did not believe these people to be good at anything. He was made to be alone, and even if he had destroyed most of what the training had made him into, he still was truly working best when he was without other people.

For that reason, he did not argue when he was given an order by an outsider. It was the only way to continue in a sane way, and so, he let them take both the dead and alive bodies and get ready to go out. They split their group, and just as Bryan gave Boris one last look and turned around to follow the people that he did not trust, a harsh coughing broke through the many Chinese words that flew from the neko-jins' mouths.

Apatite eyes opened, only to roll into the back of his head. Coughing some more, Brooklyn tried to open them again, and it took a while before his eyes were able to focus into the darkness. "Bry-Bryan…" he whispered, and the mentioned teen came into his view, while the rest of the people around him said he should not speak. "I… I did… not get… to tell… you…" The pain was obvious on his face, and his eyes began rolling uncontrollably again.

A flicker of anger gave him a wish to beat of the already beaten boy for stalling, even though it was not on purpose on the other one's part. He fought not to do what he usually would have done. Brooklyn was always a special case, no matter who you asked. The special thing about this special case for Bryan was that the white teen was respected by the temperamental teen. "What is it?" he sneered instead, and the blue eyes opened again, trying to focus.

"Your mother forgives you for killing her if you forgive her for not being able to protect you."

The words were said so clearly, and the eyes focused just then, as if it was not the boy himself who spoke. The voice was not cold, and yet it cut into Bryan's skin like icicles, giving him a crippling feeling, which fueled the anger to a state that was uncontrollable. It just was not directed towards anyone in particular anymore, which meant it was even harder to bear when the person to take revenge on was missing. It was in situations like these that he began searching for a lone innocent to be his punching bag, anger flaring up from nothing that could end up with an ended life.

Fortunately, his mind remembered the true reason for every problem he would ever encounter in his life, and he turned to the limb body of Boris. The neko-jin saw a totally different person when the gray-haired suddenly turned away and went crazy, beating and throwing the man like the last time they had met. The time where he had thrown the man down the stairs in a tiny amount of the anger the boy felt at the moment.

After a while, the angry teenager froze on the spot with Boris at his feet and began blinking, as if he only now realized what he had done. Wiping the blood off his hand in his pants, he turned and was met by four pairs of wide, golden eyes. The rest of them already had disappeared with the dead, and the gray-haired teen could not remember if the citrine had still been awake or alive when they had left. It was pretty important, since the teen was very important.

But he chose not to ask, since he did not like the looks in the eyes of his new companions. And they did not know what to do of him, afraid that he might explode again in a new fit of rage. He would not – not yet at least. Time would pass before it happened again, if he should follow the rhythm past experiences had given him. So instead, he turned around and began walking. "Come on, we have to continue," he said, looking at them over his shoulder.

They did so, silence the only company Bryan felt, even if he knew they were behind him. Their footsteps seemed nonexistent, their breathing so light it might as well be what little wind that passed through the halls. A wind that only made the trip more annoying for the Russian, who still had no shirt. Even if he was used to the icy winters of his own country, cold could still bother him. But there was one thing that bothered him even more than that.

It was that they were stopping constantly. Every time there was a door they did as they were supposed to, and freed another lonely neko-jin from his or her imprisonment, using the keys they had taken from a guard they had slayed. The problem was just that Bryan could not care less about the race of half-humans, now that he had something more important to do. One of the last things Brooklyn had said before… speaking things about that he definitely did not know of. The furthest part of this place…

It had to mean furthest away from the entrance, and that would take time and searching. And so, doing what he was actually supposed to do, free people and kill guards, was no longer seeming like his top priority. The neko-jins were slowing him down, because they did what they were supposed to do. It took a very long time before they finally turned a corner that lead to an extremely long hallway, in a part of the underground that fit with his inner map.

They had to be at the furthest part of the corner of the place. His hand again on the wall, he could feel dirt and roots pass by his hand for over five hundred steps with no crossing paths. The spirit of the neko-jins was dropping, and after what Bryan counted to two thousand steps, he was also wondering if they had made a wrong turn and had gotten on a path leading to nothing. That was until his fingertips felt stonewall instead of dirt.

It was as though it let out a lot of steam that he had been building, and his breathed out deeply. Something was there, and not long after, he felt the door he had been expecting, and he sought down to with his hand to find a handle, and pushed down tryingly as he had done with every other door he had encountered. Until now, every door he had tried had been locked, but this one opened smoothly with no creaking sound from its hinges.

A brush of warmth met him. This room seemed to be the only one with some kind of heater, which meant this room was special. Whoever owned this had to be of high rank, and the emerald took the first steps inside the room while trying to separate the different pieces of furniture in the darkness. "Do you have a flashlight?" he asked while moving to one wall of the room. The neko-jins who had followed him answered by turning the flashlight on.

He had to have jumped four feet into the air when they did, and stepped back fast, tripping over his own feet in the process. The green eyes were wide as he got to his feet again and turned away, trying to concentrate on seeing what the room contained else. But the adrenaline was still pumping in his veins. The light of the flashlight had fallen upon a metalboard exactly like the one in Boris' office, chains and all. The memories were still trying to break through to the surface of his mind, but he held them at bay.

It was an office, with the same pieces of furniture that the emerald remembered from the office in the building he and the others had been trapped in. The only difference was that this room had a lamp hanging from the ceiling instead of torches and a radiator heating by the wall. Bryan moved over to the desk and searched through the drawers to see if something interesting were hiding down there. He found some papers like from the other building, but nothing more.

"What is this place?" one of the neko-jins asked. Every cell was formed like the one Bryan had encountered when his team was still alive, and this was the only room that had been different that the rest. They could see it was some kind of office, but they did not know anything more. Much unlike the emerald, who shoved the drawers closed again with an angry noise. Why was there nothing in here? Why was he group idiots? And what did Brooklyn want him to do?

There was nothing here! "Boris' office. The man you saved me from." Those words felt so wrong in his mouth, and they tasted even worse. "It looks like the one he had in the building I and the other teens were trapped in. I was there a few times." He felt a pair of eyes bore in to him, and turned to see the neko that had been nosy about what he and Boris had been doing. "I got my punishment for not listening," he said, staring directly at the man.

And he reacted by turning away, like he had not just been burning a hole in the gray-haired teen's mind. A mild kind of anger overcame Bryan, and he gritted his teeth to contain the feeling, to prevent it from evolving. The man was annoying him for a reason he could not understand, and he started towards the door, not understanding what Brooklyn wanted him to do there. "There is a door," a voice suddenly broke through his shattering mind.

The emerald turned suddenly, the news interesting him. He had been so concentrated about the old office that he had not even considered any difference. Turning around again and making sure not to note the metal board in the corner, he looked at the walls, where screens were sitting like they had been in the other building. But beside those screen, a difference could be noted by the good eye. It had to be a door, and Bryan snatched the flashlight and opened it.

There was a bed, a TV, a dining table and different kinds of decorative furniture. It was obvious he surrounded himself with luxury while his prisoners sleeping just a few hundreds of feet beside him. Letting the light in his hands touch every corner of the room, he found another door on the opposite side of the room. "Check what is inside there," he ordered the neko-jins behind him, not caring that their pride and culture spoke against listening to a teenager.

But after making sure some of them did as they were told, the emerald began looking through all of the drawers and shelves in the man's room, not caring about his privacy. That man had been his pest for his whole life and had made him what he was, after all. He should have no respect for him. He should stop caring about that man's wellbeing. He should never have been interested in that wellbeing to begin with, free will or no free will.

The problem was just that he did care. He did have that respect.

Fortunately, he could work as he should, and do what the man deserved. He opened every drawer and began throwing everything he had already searched through to the floor and destroyed it. In the end, only the thing left standing was the bed and the bedside table. It was weird for him to destroy things without being angry or tensed in any other way, but he enjoyed it more now that those feelings were not a part of it. So he threw the mattress off the bed.

As expected, nothing was hidden underneath, and the rest of that piece of furniture followed its partner. The bedside table toppled in the process, and the single drawer opened to show what its stomach contained. The sound of metal rolling on the stone floors made Bryan look down, and he recognized a blue beyblade. Why would Boris have that one? Wheels turned in his mind, where he slowly put the pieces together. Maybe Kai had had a reason to stay behind.

Picking the so called toy up from the ground, he could feel cracks, scratches and other marks cutting deeply into the metal. The others had not found anything, telling that it was just a bathroom, and he pocketed the blade and went out of the doors to leave. This had to be what Brooklyn wanted him to find, sending him here, but for what reason? For obvious reasons, he could not know, and he turned off the flashlight just as he got out of the first door.

It lasted only a second, but he noted it. On the other side of the hall was a door, and he turned on the flashlight again to see if what he had seen was true. It was. A door made of cold, gray steel and with a doorknob about the size of a fist, where the lock was sitting. He went over and turned the knob tryingly, but ended up with the expected result. It was locked. "Who of you have the keys?" he asked directly, turning back to the group he did not really want.

The one with the keys moved forward and tried the keys. But none of them fit, while the rest of the doors had fit with a single key. Biting down on his lip, the emerald tried to think, and ended up coming to the solution of brutality being the last resort. He found his blade and launched it, and it landed in front of the door, spinning gracefully.

"Stand back," he warned just a second before his first wind blast towards the door. Fragments of stone and dust flew off the walls, and the door got a few cuts, but it did not break. "Come on, Falborg," he hissed through a half-closed mouth, and a new wind blew. The door sighed and bent, but did not break. Behind him, on the other hand, the neko-jins felt nearly the same amount of pressure from his winds as the door did. And it definitely was not comfortable.

It required five more winds before the hinges on the door finally broke, though the door itself was able to take it, and it flew into the room it had hid with the force of a projectile and the deadliness of a cannonball. The group slowly went inside, the room they met much like the rest of the cells in this underground labyrinth, even though the door was apparently stronger. Looking around, it seemed to be empty, and Bryan let the flashlight go over every corner of the room one more time.

The light fell on the bed, and he neared it, as it seemed someone was lying on it underneath a blanket. Taking the dirty blanket off the body, he looked on a whitely pale, extremely thin corpse of a man. The cheeks were hollow, every bone on his arms and the rest of his visible skin standing out as mountains in a landscape. The clothes had to be at least four sizes too big. And the long hair framing the pale, dead still body…

It was dirty, but if Bryan's eyes did not deceive him, it was two different tones of dark blue.

Shaking his head, he turned away from the body, closing his eyes in annoyance. He was no longer sure of what to do, if Brooklyn had wanted him to see this person, or if it was for Kai's beyblade. And even more important, he had a slight worry about the teen, who was the only one who knew the answers to that question. After so many shots and with their poor abilities and supplies for treatment, he was just as dead as if his body had actually given up.

He took his first step to leave, when he heard one of the adults gasp. Turning back fast, he saw that the corpse had lifted a hand and was holding the neko-jin's wrist, the dry, cracked lips parting hoarsely. "Anata wa tenshidesu ka?" his hoarse voice asked, desperation in the shaky. "Ты ангел? Anata wa tenshidesu ka? Вы ангел или вы здесь, чтобы мучить меня?" The bones on the hand seemed to be piercing through the skin, the nails digging in to his victim's flesh. He still looked more dead than alive, and he tried to lift his head, only to drop it back down again.

But at the known words, Bryan reacted, approaching the man again and staring down at him. He still held the flashlight in his hand, and it was on, making the half-dead man blink confusedly. It took a long while before the pale man could see him again, and the eyes that focused on him were bloodred.

"What did he say?" one asked as the neko getting held by the man slowly took the bony fingers off his wrist.

"Are you an angel," Bryan translated, turning to the questioner, "or are you here to torture me?"

* * *

The door had welcomed the sunshine of white light, blinding them after having moved around in the hellish darkness for so long. The light seemed ironic, giving the feeling of entering Heaven after death, the tunnel of light welcoming the pale bodies to a better time of life. And it felt like leaving Hell for some, the everlasting darkness and dusty halls nearly having driven some of the lives that had been there longer to suffocate their minds in black thoughts.

The light hit the violet eyes with a destructive force that felt like a hammer, hurting them. Raising his hands to try and shadow the blinding beams, he stepped outside, enjoying his first fresh breath of air after the long imprisonment. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the new surroundings, green began showing in the midst of whiteness, the grass around him and the evergreen trees in the distance, and the sky slowly became a dusty grey. As more colors got clear for his tormented eyes, he could turn his head and watch the dry, brown tips of the green straws and the last, wilting flowers hiding underneath the waving ocean of grass.

The next breath was deeper as he enjoyed the scent of the nature and the singing birds. Still holding the hands up to keep the suns sharp beams from his sensitive eyes, he stepped forward, forgetting the people behind him as he felt the feeling of true happiness and love for the world. Straining the violet orbs, he forced them to look for the birds.

His eyesight was confusing, the good eye alone in trying to see such a great distance. And the birds were too far away and too small for him to focus on, their fast movements in the air hard to keep track of. After a little while more of walking through the grass, he carefully let the hand fall, and a blurred spot of brown crimson reached the corner of his bad eye. He turned his head around, looking for the source of the color, and found his hands.

His mind froze and his eyes dilated. Falling off in small flakes from his hands was dry blood, sticking to his skin like an extra layer. Between his fingers, underneath his nails, in the wrinkles at his finger joints, it was everywhere. The image of his grandfather's silhouette in the darkness broke through the barrier in his mind, and around him, the world seemed to cool down many degrees. The glint of a knife in darkness, shining red, pouring blood all over his fingers.

A shockwave coursed through him from the center body, making him shiver. It stopped by his throat, making a plug which was impassable. Another sob made its way through him, and he could feel his breakfast sticking in his throat just where the first sob had placed a cork. The feeling was uncomfortable, but the sobs refused to reach his mouth where the pressure building up in his body could find a way out. Exactly like the tears missing in his eyes.

He did not realize the others had passed by him before he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked into the brown eyes of Tyson. Beside him was Rei, and like his younger teammate, the neko looked concerned. The slate wanted to shrug the hand off, move away from them, do all the things that he normally did to keep at least a small distance between them. He wanted to… but he couldn't. His mind was stuck in the same feeling, and he did not care if they were close.

His lack of response of their closeness made the concern in their eyes spread to all of their posture, and Rei moved around him and took his flesh-hand, his soft skin bringing a gentle comfort. Tyson took his healthy arm around the shoulder of his friend, and the three of them had a closer moment now than at any time before. It was sad the circumstances bringing it were that one was broken, and three other of their group was missing. Hillary and Daichi…

And Max.

With kind words and gentle pushing, they got the slate teen all the way over to the others, and sat him down by the edge of the group. But their words did not reach past the flesh of the boy, his mind was closed off from the world, and around him, life went on. Inside, he was frozen, no longer in possession of a purpose, his life ended the moment he had pierced through his grandfather's skin the first time. His eyes were focused on his bloodied hands.

For half a minute, the world had seemed perfect. For half a minute, he had felt something, something great, he had fled from his prison of darkness. Unfortunately, that prison had been just as mental as it had physical, and he was not supposed to live his life in the light. That half minute should be tossed in the trash pin just as fast as it had come.

Kai did not register that Katyenka came back with a crew of scientists and proceeded to take out bullets, stitch up people and hand out pills. Not even when she came over to them to treat the injuries his teammates had gotten did he realize she had come back, and for once she actually sent him a caring look when she saw how his dead eyes stared down at the blood. His two friends were more concentrated about the well-being of him than their own wounds, and they tried to rub as much of the dry blood off of his hand. And they were very surprised to find that one arm had been replaced with a metal one.

They quizzed him about it, but though this pained subject had wakened him slightly, he did not answer. Not wanting to feel the embarrassment of being unable to speak, he just shook his head to them. But they saw life returning to his eyes, and Tyson, having his own way of being clever, kept putting more pressure on the subject, while not even trying to conceal his fear about the discovery. He had never imagined… It seemed impossible… Alien…

"Kai, what has happened? Who did it?" he said, his voice in a higher pitch than usual. Rei kept silent for the moment, trying to figure out the links between different events that could have happened and had happened, and trying to read the few changes in his friend's expression his eyes only barely was able to see. The slate just refused to look at them, his face stoic and tense, even if he let the neko-jin continue to clean up his hands. "Did you lose your arm?"

What does it look like?

"Are you alright?"

Just take a freaking look at me, there is your answer!

"Was it Voltaire's fault?"

Once again, everything began feeling cold, and ice seemed to spread from his heart to his toes. He gritted his teeth, and the hand between Rei's fingers curled into a fist. The robot-arm lifted itself with, the hand in a fist, about to connect with the younger teen's face. But looking into the eyes of his former teammate, his feelings turned again, and the hand dropped. Growling, he stood from the spot on the ground and started away from them.

But at least they knew he was still alive in there, somewhere, and his two teammates were more at ease. Even if he, when he sat down again on the far side of camp, had the dead look in his eyes once again, they knew that with time and patience, they would get their Kai back. And even better, the experience with their persistent help and believe in him might give them a new Kai, who was more eager to be with them. It was a hope, and they would fight for it.

Sitting on his new spot, the slate began wringing his hand, trying subconsciously to remove the blood as he became more aware of what happened outside the bubble called his mind. He saw how his old enemies, Katyenka, Maxim, the guards and scientists, how they tried to help the people he may consider his allies. At the moment he was looking at a scientist in his late fifties, trying to help the unconscious body of the redhead.

He heard something move behind him, but it seemed unimportant until he heard a guy calling for help. Slowly turning his head, he looked for the owner of the voice through his long, slate bangs. One of those neko-jins, holding someone in his arms, and as he continued watching, other figures formed, holding two more persons. Should he do something? Should he help? … Nah. He did not care. Would not care. It did not mean anything anyway.

With a sigh, he turned back to stare at his friend where the old scientist was tending the redhead's bullet-wound, but the new group of people decided to block his view. At first it annoyed him, but he felt so strangely detached that he did not truly care. But after watching for a while, he recognized a mane of beautiful, blue hair. Though there was an odd mix of red in the back part of it…

The annoyance became interest, and he frowned and leaned to the side to see more clearly. Yes, it was Ming-Ming, the hole from a bullet passing through just in the middle of her forehead. The eyes had gotten closed, but he could see the tearstains on her cheek. He had never truly liked her or her annoying voice, so why did this death bug him?

Getting laid beside the girl was a blond. Died with his face intact, Kai thought sarcastically, a grim smirk on his face that truly was not his. He would not have liked to look down on a destroyed face from Heaven or whatever else it is you get to after dead. The slate let his eyes run down the body, seeing the red stain that had set on the body's chest, and the teen began wondering how the group had ended up dying. But then again… why bother?

The last body the nekos delivered was all covered in blood, and the teen frowned as he tried to recognize whoever it was. The clothes were so red it was impossible to determine what color it had been. It was the same with the face, smeared with the person's own blood. It was not until Katyenka came over to treat the body that he realized whoever hid underneath that red liquid was alive and clinging to the last glow that was trying to flare up his candle once more.

"Get some water," Katyenka ordered, and people did as she ordered while she took off the bandages they already had placed. They were soaked red, and underneath, new blood seemed to still be pulsing out. She stared at the body, feeling over it, and her face got more and more desperate. The dark green eyes she possessed turned to stare at the neko, who had brought the dying teen. "How did this happen?" she asked with a shaking voice.

The neko shrugged. "The boy was with the psychotic kid… Bryan, I think he is called. They encountered Boris, and from what I understood, the only one who survived the bullets was the one getting about twenty into his stomach and chest. Either a very lucky… or very unfortunate child." She looked down again, and seemed ready to give up. The situation was so big, so immense, that she could not figure out where to start. "Are you even a doctor?" the neko asked.

The ones who had run for the water came back just this second, and she got her hands busy again, cleaning up most of the mess of the thick liquid. The many bullet wounds became visible, and she once again halted before beginning to take out the bullets, clean it with alcohol and stitch up the wounds one by one. "This situation needs a hospital, not a forest floor and stressed surroundings," she mumbled, but the words were clearly heard by the watching slate.

"Are you a doctor?" he repeated, trying to copy her actions and take some of the load off her shoulders.

"Not legally," she answered. "I was a farm girl lost in the big city with the dream of doing great things. I wanted to be a doctor. A nice man picked me up on the streets and offered me a job. His name was Boris." She continued her working, refusing to look at the man beside her. But she could see that his hands stopped moving even if the surprised look on his face escaped her, and her eyes hardened. "He told me that he had a need for an assistant, and that he had heard about my dreams. Without telling me exactly what I would be doing, he said that if I wanted it, I would have to live where I worked, and that I would be picked up by a special alley in the middle of the night. They blindfolded me and took me to the Abbey, and I did not see the sun for three years, before Boris began trusting me."

Her movements had gotten rougher; the speed of her work doubled. She grit her teeth. The neko-jin let it be, seeing how they came to a more delicate subject and how he could risk to put the wounded in danger if he stressed her. The water they had poured over the body dripped to the ground, pink after mixing with the blood that was still pulsing out of the many untended wounds. Another man came over to them with more water, and washed the blood off the deadly pale face to try and give him a bit of liquid.

The slate's head tilted to the side as he recognized the delicate face through the dust and clouds filling his mind. In another world, he felt sorrow, as his strongest opponent was dying. Even if Tyson was able to win against the now dying teen, and he himself too, there was no doubt that if Brooklyn actually began training, they would be crushed under his bitbeast's claws. In another world, Kai had these thoughts, in a world long hidden inside himself.

But in this world, he just watched as the little drops of water fought past the pale lips of the beautiful face. He watched how the eyes hiding under the locked eyelids seemed to move, as if a nightmare was adding in the many troubles he already was facing. And though the slate's mind was working hard, the place where his thoughts were made was empty. He did not even care when once again, someone behind him made a sound. This time, it was a gasp.

This time he did not turn. The thump of a body hitting the ground did not disturb him, either. He did not see the shocked look on Bryan's face as he stared at his captain and the old scientist who was treating him. He did not see the colorful rainbow of emotions pass over the teen's pale face as the scientist turned to see him, only to let these many colors get replaced by the grey of no emotions at all. The barrel he had exploded was getting remade, and being filled.

But to him, the most important thing that he did not see as he refused to turn around, was the body which was dropped at the emerald's feet.

* * *

I… actually did get it done. Anyway, I am falling to my knees, begging you to review my story with a review that says more than just update faster. It was because of one single review that I made this whole chapter, and I thank you again, Cherry-Toxic. I wrote 3/4 of this in the week after reading her review, before the black hole in my depressed mind sucked me in once again. Then, a month later, I opened that exact review after the smallest flicker of inspiration caught me, and with the use of it, I now got it done.

So I beg of you to make a review in hope that I get enough to not end up in the black hole and be unable to write. And because of my mental state, I was unable to get myself to check for mistakes. I'm sorry for any typo and stupid sentences.

That said, I come with a late happy New Year and merry Christmas, even if mine wasn't one to be merry about. Hope you had fun and all.

Enjoy in joy ^^ And bye…


	25. Blood type

Sorry. That is all I can say. Sorry. I am fighting against myself and my own mood… And it is a damn annoying fight. I can't write most of the time, even if I have all the ideas and the wish to continue this story. Also, I have found out all about what the sequel will be about, even if it won't be made right after I have finished this story.

Disclaimer: Former chapters, please.

Warnings: Nothing in particular. You should know my actions and way of writing by now.

Reviews (forcing myself to give it a little heart):

babydragonXXX: Thank you so much for the words. The shift in POV and the confusion there, though, I must admit that it is very much on purpose. I just hope it does not destroy too much of the flow for you, for it should be enjoyable. I love this story so much myself that I am trying hard to make it as good as possible, so I thank you for giving me the feeling that I am doing my job well enough.

Cherry-Toxic: I hope it was not too hard for you to review, for this one was definitely in the long end of them. And I am just glad I have to answer your review, because it gives me an excuse to read it again without feeling to self-centered. It seems you have found the description of a depression very well, though, and I can only say I agree. I want to get better -.-' Kai is really fighting himself (and more) a lot in his attempt of finding a way to survive, and it is only good Tyson and Rei is with him. Maxim and Katyenka (especially she) have I from the beginning known would end up helping the team in time, though the circumstances have varied a lot in my mind. And I… am kind of worried about Bryan. Even I don't know where he will end anymore, and things only gets worse in this chapter. But immortality truly does suit Brooklyn ;) And all I can say is… Ming-Ming brain just finally exploded. Brooklyn and Bryan is, at least to me, some kind of two sides of the same matter. They fit in a way that cannot be described as friendship, for I am not sure how much either of them now about such a bond. And a moment is only as short, or long, as the reader itself make it. I'm just sad I killed Max, he would do so much good to Kai right now…

At last, I will just thank all so much for having given me a review. It was helping me to write, so I send you warm feelings.

* * *

Blood type

* * *

Walking out of the underground was troublesome with an extra baggage in the form of a half-corpse could not be called pleasant, and finding the way back was harder than he would have believed. The total darkness and many corners formed a maze of crossroads, and they even ended by a dead-end once. Dust filled their noses and the cold air of the tunnels seemed to become thicker the longer they searched for an exit.

Not trusting the nekos, Bryan had demanded to carry the man on his own. Whoever the man was, the hair and the eyes told that he was worth a lot. And as the only one on the new team, he knew the fight was not as over as the rest of the believed. For them, the threat had been killed, as they did not know of Voltaire… And as they did not know of the emerald's secret that he knew his teammates would kill him for if he shared it to them.

In all honesty, he did not know why he did it. No, that was wrong. He knew why. It was because he was a dog, whipped and beaten, trained to follow even the most hurtful order if his leader commanded him to. And it was even worse than that. Because even as clever as he was called, and no matter how beaten he was, he was a loyal dog. That was the only reason he could have done what he did. Even if he was supposed to have changed, have his feelings…

The biggest part of him still was the same.

He had just proved so, and even if he knew it was wrong what he had done, the spell cast on him was still binding him. Bound to follow orders without a mind of his own and follow his instincts to protect those above him.

Gripping the body tighter, Bryan gritted his teeth, the anger once again trying to control him. Realizing he was still nothing more than a machine brought him back to his incontrollable anger, as he was forced to see reality. Tala had tried to make him more than he was; to make it seem that he actually was able to make the choices, that he was actually able to be a human being. When it was about his friends' abilities, the wolf was too much of an optimist.

Letting go of a minimal of the pressure the anger inside him was building up, he took the man in his hands on one arm and hit the dirt wall next to him. In the darkness, he could feel and hear how his action loosened minimal parts of the dirt wall, making small particles of dust flood with the winds of his movement. But with the first hit, the pressure inside only became more unbearable, and he hit again and again, and again, attempting to guide the feelings out.

The more he hit, the worse it got, and he was close to letting the man in his arms fall to the ground to let his whole body try to tear the hard material apart. A machine. Nothing more than a tool in the hands of others. No will to live, no reason to die, no family to have and no friends he was able to love. Miserable, lousy and sick, able to kill without a doubt or hint of hesitation and used to doing so. The only place he fit in was behind bars, away from everyone.

Or in Boris' hands. He was shaped to Boris' hand like a special made glove.

His mind was spinning out of control as he continued to hit the wall, harder and harder with the side of his fist. He did not notice the hand holding his wrist until he was no longer able to destroy, and with this realization, he turned around and was ready to beat whoever held him up with his other hand. The fragile figure found in the inner part of the maze fell to the ground as he spun around and sent a fist right at the face of the exact same neko which had already caused him so much trouble.

Luckily for the man, he had fast reflexes. Ducking under the hammering fist, he grabbed that one too, and looked for sense in the emerald eyes. It came just then, when the teen understood it was not an enemy who held his hand, and the neko let go again. He attempted to show a sign of kindness by taking a hand on the boy's cheek, but was rewarded with a defiant look and a step away. Bryan turned around again, grabbed the body on the floor and continued.

"Are you alright?" the man asked, but got what he expected. No answer. Letting it be and continuing, the only sounds once again was just their faint steps and light breathing. It took them, or Bryan, long enough to figure out where the exit of the maze was, and the light that shone unto them was the coldness of sundown. The emerald shook his head and snorted the dust out of his nose, not even glancing at the scratched hand the wall had formed.

Following the neko-jins' sharp ears, they went under the safety of the shadow of the tree line and went for the sounds of human life, such and speaking. It did not take too much time before they reached the first signs of assembling people. But there was no-one who had even thought of making shelter or finding food.

The reason was obvious, as new people had come, even scientists, cooks and guards, and many of the new and old ones had become wounded. Yet the emerald could not help but feel disappointed that Tala had not begun making the camp for the night, until they could move in the morning. With so many wounded, they could not move before tomorrow, and that was pushing it. But with the many wounded and lost guards, no one would come after them yet. Hopefully.

The best thing would just be killing off the wounded ones and move out immediately to get distance between themselves and the enemy bigger. Bryan liked that idea. And yet he knew it would not be agreed upon.

They walked on, moved closer, and he began to see the faces of people, he recognized the back of the slate phoenix and remembered the blade in his pocket. Then he caught sight of the reason why Tala had not commanded the preparation of a camp. The redhead lied unconscious nearly in the middle of the assembled people, and his clothes were covered in blood around his one arm and stomach. He had been wounded.

Taking another few steps, Bryan got a look on the man treating his captain. A shockwave shot through his whole body, making him freeze as a gasp escaped from between his lips. The man in his arms dropped to the ground, but the gray-haired did not even notice, his wide eyes staring at the old man in the white scientist-cloak. Every feeling he had begun to feel started to erupt, showing itself to him and passing through him, only to disappear once more.

Compassion, fright, happiness, curiosity, fun, annoyance, hurt, anger, irritation, loneliness. Rage. It all flew through him, painting his inside and smearing together until every single color had become so insignificant, tormented and blended together with the rest that the last color left was a grayish brown. Hate. And beside that feeling… nothing.

What seemed to have been hundreds of years for him were nothing more than a few seconds, and he saw the scientist watch him from the distance. The gray-haired man looked worried, having seen all the things flowing past the hard face, and he commanded another person to take care of the wounds on the red wolf.

With steady feet he began moving towards the teen, every step he t_ook bursting with uneasiness. He dried the sweat off of his forehead, the gray strands in his auburn hair having become many in the years the eleven year old emerald had known him. Striding back and forth over the floor, he seemed on the verge of a mental break down. And with the workplace he had found for himself, it could be a surprise for no-one._

_The young, gray-haired pre-teen watched him flap the papers of the record over and over, as if looking desperately for the fault he had missed. What the emotionless teen found interesting was that everyone of the scientist acted like this. They had done a mistake, and since he had been brought to the room, he knew he had something to do with it. If he had been any other Abbey-boy, he would have been frightened to death. But this one was no boy._

_Even his teammates saw him as a machine, and it was only Tala who could use it. When an order was giving, it got completed so carefully, and yet with such a speed, it was inhuman. And on top of the lack of motion in his face and hurt in his eyes when they had called him words in the beginning, the label just had fitted to him perfectly._

_So the boy did not feel scared, looking at the desperate people around him. He did not feel uneasy. Not even the slightest drop of curiosity slipped in to his hollow sea. He just waited for the next thing to happen, for the next order to come or the needles to be forced into his arms, for the food to be set at his front, so he knew what next to do. He did not feel bored, even if he had been sitting here, waiting, watching, for over ten minutes._

_The minutes did not reach twenty before the reason for the fear the pulsated in the air of the room of punishment came, in the form of a Boris slamming the door open with every sign on his body that told everyone that getting in his way meant death. The scientists' unwillingly stepping backwards, Bryan found himself sitting as a tiny shield between the raging man and the workers, but simply kept his eyes on his superior, waiting for the expected orders._

_They did not come._

"_So, what is this 'problem', that is big enough for you to _claim_ that we have to stop our project?" Boris spat, his mouth dripping so much venom that it was a surprise the floor at his feet did not sear away. The scientist with the record gave it to their leader, and Boris had to take a deep breath before he claimed down so much that he could just even look at it. Yet when he did look, his anger breathed right after his eyes touched the paper. "A +?" his icy voice said._

"_Well, ye-yes," another of the scientists said, this was the one in charge of their 'project', and seemed to be the youngest in the group. "We-we cannot proceed wi-without risking to kill him, and h-he has gotten of so-so much va-value for you. We-we cannot end wha-what we started, sir." The man's crimson eyes bored into the brown of the scientist, the fear and tension floating in the room doubling with every second._

"_And you did not even think of checking the blood type _before_ you started this?" It seemed to require every bit of self control for him not to choke the man for this failure. Listening to them, or rather Boris, yelling, Bryan understood that there was something wrong with him. He had a wrong blood type. What else that meant, he did not know._

_He knew it was bad. That it might not be fixed, that he might just be incomplete forever. It angered Boris, which to the boy was the biggest and only problem. The scientist continued apologizing, seeming as though he was begging for his life, and the boy knew he was. Though unimportant, uncaring and inhuman, he knew that others could be… uncertain about their lives and hope of surviving a day. Especially when they had crossed Boris._

"_The boy is almost complete, sir," the scientist said, changing subject with eyes on the floor. "He has nearly the amount of strength we wanted him to, and his reactions have gotten slightly faster than the usual. The drugs we have given him until now His brain function is also nearly the double of a normal person, and on top of our psychological treatments, we have added another drug, which makes him nearly unable to-"_

"_I do not care what you have completed until now, I care for the ultimate weapon you promised me! How dare you make such a mistake?" Their leader was still raging, and the only one not moved by the situation was the center of the conversation. "What about you?" the man continued, gesturing towards the rest. "None of you ever recorded the blood type and thought about telling it to anyone so that the program could be changed in time?"_

_They all skidded away from the purple-haired man as they shook their heads, and the emerald eyes of the boy flowed over the faces of these men he had known most of his life. Two. Two of the faces twisted. Two of them had known. "Boris." His voice was as neutral and uncaring as ever as he brought attention upon himself. They all turned their attention to him, as they knew he no longer spoke unless he had something important to say. "Two knew."_

"What_?" _

_The whole room seemed to freeze at the words. The revelation ironically could only come from the one in the room who had not been moved by the pressure, and Bryan nodded to Boris, staring at his face. "Henrietta and Michel. It is written in their faces." It was pure grief that replaced the flicker of unease on the faces of the two in question, and the newest member and only female of their team, Henrietta, stared at the floor with tears running down her face._

_They both knew they were done for. If there was one person in the world who could not lie, it was Bryan, and for that reason Boris would not doubt that it was the truth. It was the same with the rest of the scientists in the room, and all they met from their colleagues was pure hate and anger. If they really had known that the blood type would not be able to handle the drug they were going to use, they had endangered every scientist on the project for when it failed. _

_Even if their reason for silence, that they might have gotten punished for telling their knowledge, was obvious, there was no mercy from their now former colleagues. It took one word from Boris, and they were dragged down the hall, treated with a harshness even worse than the one the 'students' of the Abbey were facing. None of the crew they had worked with even seemed to have the tiniest flicker of sadness or regret over the happening. None except for one._

_The auburn-haired stared after the woman, with tears in his eyes that he was trying hard to hide. Luckily for him, Boris was still raging, and though the sinners had been found, the leader of the scientists still was the purple-haired's target. "What do you want me to do with him now? Are you satisfied with what you have accomplished? You think I want that piece of shit, that incomplete pestilence that you have created?"_

"_We still have some things we can do…" the scientist told pleadingly, looking like a dog fearing a beating from its master. "We cannot make him any stronger or faster, but his accuracy… We have noticed he only hit his targets perfectly with the gun twenty eight out of thirty shots." Eyes downcast, the man could not see how his superiors face changed from furious to worse. "And we can train him to become more able to adapt into different situations, as he is sticking out from every environment he will encounter at the moment…"_

"_Shut your mouth," Boris spat, his face beginning to change from red to the color of his hair. "Why would I want a more accurate shooter when I already have a more than capable murderer?" His voice was lowered to near whispering, which was even scarier than the loudness. "Why should wish for him to fit in, when I have used so much money on making him exactly that way?" he sneered. "I want him to learn to fight, not what his lousy being can do now! I cannot use what you have made, and you have made me waste much money on that bastard! I should just…"_

"_Sir, can I speak?" Bryan questioned, his green eyes empty as the heart he was speaking to. As he got the nod he wanted, he spoke with the voice that had nothing but a robotic mind to bear. "If I am useless to you, why do you not kill me? You will merely be wasting more money on feeding me, and I cannot become what you desire anymore."_

_An ocean of emotions washed in behind the face of Boris, only slightly visible in the crimson eyes hidden behind his glasses. It seemed his empty heart was filled with more than he wanted to show, but the only one who detected it was the one who did not care. Bryan simply tilted his head questioningly, wanting an answer to his logic. _

_The back of Boris' hand hit the side of his face, the sound of the slap echoing as a ringing silence in the former loudness of the purple-haired man's roaring voice. It was out of Bryan's ability to comprehend, that his emotionless wisdom not was accepted this time, and he was trying to calculate what had gone wrong. Not because he feared to get the same reaction as he had gotten now another time, but because he knew no other purpose than pleasing his superior. But his thoughts became an endless ring of confusion. He did not know enough to find the answer._

_His eyes seemed even more off than they usually were when Boris finally pulled himself together enough to turn around and point at the still-crying scientist. "You!" his icy voice said. Yet he did not seem to see the sign of weakness the tears on the man's face showed, he too buried in thought. "Bring this idiot to his old room, and keep him there until I tell you otherwise. Are you, unlike others, able to do this simple task?"_

"_O-of course, sir," the auburn scientist said in a wavering voice, hiding his tears from his master by hiding his face. In two long steps, he was by the boy, and grabbed the front of his shirt with the roughness of a wounded monster. Walking down a few halls, Bryan found himself in the very well-known lab, on his way to the cell that had been his home. From the smell in there, it had gotten from that to a place of punishment in his absence._

_It smelled as bad as when he had lived there, as it now was used to lock up troublemakers for as long as their wrong-doing required. This could be everything from two days to a month. The smell of the piss and worse, and the screaming of the rats, it was the same as he remembered, but he was no longer able to look at the place that had been his home with disgust or fear. He was no longer who he had been the first time he had seen the inside of those walls._

_He was thrown headfirst into the hay that hid what truly littered the floor, and felt a rat flee from underneath his one arm. Turning around, he only had enough time to recognize what came towards his head as a black boot covered foot before it hit his jaw and forced his head to the ground again. _

_When the world was clear once again, he lifted his sight to stare up in the face of the man, who now was crying loudly, the sound of the sobs outwithering his rough breathing. "You little piece of shit!" he screamed, kicking once again, and hitting the unprotected chest this time. "You worthless piece of trash!" It was another pause with words before a new kick hit him, this time his head once again. "You will never be complete!" Another kick. "No-one will ever need you!" A new kick. "No one will ever miss you!" And another. "You can never be the use for anyone!"_

_That was the beginning of the rain of words and kicks as the aggression that mostly was directed to Boris was guided down upon the empty body of a brainwashed eleven-year-old. An eleven-year-old, who was so broken that he could not even see the reason for him to try to fend for himself, or even brace himself from the kicks. It took ten minutes for the man to calm down enough that he turned away and left the boy, closing the door behind him._

_Left in the darkness, weakened from his wounds, Bryan could do nothing but lie in the urine and drops of humans and rats, staring at the light that shone down on him from the cracks in the door. Light that minutes later was turned off by the scientist, and the boy was left with nothing but his lack of thoughts and lack of pain._

It was with the sound of that closing door and the sight of the lacking light that Bryan felt himself get embraced by the exact same man, just many years later. "I think I saw a change in you," the man said as he pulled away to look closer at the boy. But the face in his front was once more emotionless, as all the progress he had made got locked away by memories of training. He did not even have the ability pull away from the man he truly should hate.

"Thought Boris killed you all," the boy said, his emerald eyes staring dully and the old man.

"All but two," the man answered, his voice becoming shaky and weak. And suddenly, Bryan was attacked by another embrace, the loud sobs of guilt shaking both him and his old demon. "I am sorry," he heard the whisper in his ear, everything telling him that the man holding him in his arms was falling apart, but not caring about it. "I so sorry about everything I did to you."

* * *

_Kai…?_

The sound of the voice made the hollow body stir, and the slate raised his head with a weak hiss. He could feel those around him react, as it was his first sound for he did not know how long. The feeling of another poking around in his mind made him shudder, but the feeling faded away after a short while. So he lowered his head again and fell back into the dark abyss, the light of the fire dancing and gracing over him.

_Kai?_

The feeling came over him once again, and he shifted in his rock-hard seat, his violet gaze moving away from his friend. Letting his flesh-hand fall to his pocket, he let it shape around the beyblade, the black power pulsing from beneath his fingertips. Giving the unconscious Tala one last look, he turned around and stared in to the flames dancing just beside him and let himself fall for the temptation.

What? he asked through his mind, clenching the plastic top a bit harder. A part of his sub consciousness knew that from the other side of his redheaded friend, both Tyson and Rei were watching his every move with concern. The problem was just that unlike the being he spoke to now, he would have to voice his every word to them.

_You are losing your grip…_

For some reason, the emotions the slate teen detected in the voice were more heated and rough than normally. From what he had heard the bird itself claim, it had to be because of the use it wished him to have for it. It wanted him, and it wanted him whole and strong. It did not care for his body, but wanted his mind, and had to make sure that it did not get crippled too. That was why it sounded angry.

I know, he admitted, staring into the red-orange chaos, the heat from it becoming unbearable for anyone else than him. But he had never feared fire, even though it was like this was rising up from its nothing and tried to trap him with its none-physical tentacles. I… just do not want to do this anymore. I do not want to lead. I cannot anymore, not with my disabilities… and not after I became a murderer…

_He deserved it._ Once again it felt like electricity shut through him at the dark words, and he gritted his teeth as he tried not to jump into the air and yell. He would not be able to yell, anyway, and would simply shame himself. So he let it be with a small, rough shake with his head, before he let the fire invade his mind. The black bird could feel his anger without him sending a straight answer through his mind. _You know I am right. Though a killer, you actually killed one who actually is no innocent. I wish I was able to be as honest._

Keeping the snort on the inside, the slate could not contain the smirk of taunt and disbelief. A face his teammates knew very well, but all they could see the darkness of the back of his hair. You really want me to believe that you do not kill innocents for fun after I have felt your hate? he sent a thought, staring at the shapes shifting and turning in the red inferno, a dance of the nymphs of fire. Or a call from a crying phoenix.

_Even though I have my hate, I sometimes wish the table was turned. That it was me who had a human with love towards me instead of resent, and her who tasted the iron taste of sorrow when she was created in darkness and left there. Just because killing and spreading chaos is my only way of feeling joy, I wish not only to do bad._ The dark phoenix had a tone in voice which Kai had never detected in it before. Yet he was not convinced.

I have a hard time believing you, he told, aware of the trickery the dark phoenix contained. Though he still was feeling the lust to use it, a part of him was fighting against the monster in his hand. But it could be so easy just to sink into its darkness and need never to take responsibility anymore. Just let another mind control his own. The problem about that was just that the one supposed to control him only wanted to do so because he was so resistant. And strong.

He was losing this strength and resistance, and was reminded so when his eyes fell to the fiery red hair on the other side of him. Shivering hard and fighting in his own way, Tala was once again trying to come back from the dead. If there was one who was just as strong and resisting as himself, Kai had to believe it was this older teen. He was probably even better, after his long, hard stay in the pits of hell. Now, he was near his death again…

And it was the slate's fault.

It was as though he realized all his wrongdoings once again, and he curled himself up and hid his face behind the knees, once again trying to cry. The tears just did not flow, and the sobs were twisting around in his throat instead of coming out in the night and relieve him. It did not help that the black bird was screeching in the back of his mind, angered by his pitiful state of being.

Even so, it did not take too long before two pairs of hands held his shoulders and gave him a light hug, his two teammates trying to support him. They did it even if it felt awkward doing it to exactly this member of the group and even if they knew it was acts of kindness they could not count on getting back. But they kept silent, trying to at least give him a little privacy. So the only voice in his ears was the one inside his head.

_Weakling…_ the voice hissed, making Kai flinch. But he neither denied nor made even the slightest attempt to show the two teammates, who stepped back, that it was not their fault. _Why is it so hard for you? He was your enemy. To kill him was the only way, or it would have been you lying on the ground bleeding. Why is it so hard for you? Is it this thing called love? Because I cannot believe that you have ever loved anyone other than yourself!_

"Li…-ar," Kai's weak whisper was added to the breeze. He heard a disbelieving snort, from both his own and the bitbeast's mind. He… the teen instead tried to explain. He… He was my last family. The last bond, no matter how torn it was. Family is supposed to be the closest, and I closed the deal. And to add, the only one who seemed to be able to understand me is laying near-dead by my side…

_He was not the last._

The words felt like they echoed in his mind, though the meaning of them did not dig in with its destructive claws. The information was only given because the bird did not want to see its strong carrier grow weak. And there was a new light in the violet eyes, a light of both fear and loss. Opening his mouth to merely a crack, he forgot his disability and spoke. "Wh-who… Where? Whe-ere i-is h-he?" he begged with hate in his voice, as a bird seemed to form in the flames that had caught his eyes before. But now, they saw nothing.

_Turn around to your right,_ the evil one answered, and the boy turned to see. Over a sea of wounded people, it was as though that single one stood out from the rest as a roaring black fire in the golden sky. The empty face with the closed eyes, wilted away by long times of starvation and the years that had parted them. The clothes, ragged as the rest by the treatment they all had faced. And the hair, marking them both to be of the same family.

In a second the slate had come to his feet and took a step back, his thoughts roaring as if they took revenge of the silence he had been blessed with beforehand. He did not notice how close he got to the fire behind him, only seeing the face he had hated and loved and missed for what felt like an eternity. Now, standing before the man, seeing him again, those feelings seemed to freeze. He did not want to know this man. Maybe because he did not truly remember.

The rest of his friends were left to stare, while the stoic face they had always known crumbled to what only could be called the face of a lost child. They did not know what had triggered this change, and this lack of knowledge only made it even worse. And to add with their fear, the fire in their front seemed to rise ten feet.

In the form of a bird with a long tail and long mane, the swirling, dancing flames continued to rise. Rising its head in a cry without sound, the phoenix of fire lowered its head, the bright light shining from it bringing the attention from everyone around. The eyes of fire stared sad down upon Kai, the only one not seeming to notice it, and it lowered the head once again, the crown on it fading and rising in its fiery form.

Then it dived, taking its wings around the teen's form in a hot embrace. Rei and Tyson jumped forward when the form of their friend fell to his knees underneath the strength of the flames, but the heat was so strong that they could do nothing to help. Instead, they dragged the redhead out of the way, the unconscious body sweating, twisting and turning under the heat and bad dreams. Tyson doing this in bad pain, his missing finger hurting.

The only one not yelling by the actions of the fire was the one attacked by it. The slate was truly kneeling down under the heating pressure, but his eyes were closed, and the first meaningful smile was put on his face after months of pain. Inside his head, the beautiful tones flowed, a song that only he had ever heard before. It soothed him, and all the pain, all the struggles he had faced, all the losses, suddenly did not mean all that much.

Reaching its highs and lows, the song helped him set everything in his mind straight again. After what felt like years for him, another song contributed, darker and far more twisted, but this one was only speeding up the process. There was no hostility between the two voices, and no battle was beginning to form. It was as though the two bitbeasts, the two eternal enemies, had come to a temporary truce in a common goal.

It sent the slate into what felt like a heavenly sleep, one without nightmares and only dreams of good, unremembered memories. The slate did not want it to stop, not the tones in his mind or the motherly embrace that his body was feeling, despite what should be a killing heat. For once, he felt both wanted and comfortable, not like the freak he knew he had become, a creature that only belonged in the claws of its creator.

But even if he did not want it to stop, and even if he felt peaceful, the farther the two creatures came in their mind-dance, the more he knew it could not continue. Fighting the part of him that wanted to be comfortable with the part that usually was strongest, the part that felt responsibility and leadership, he fought to raise his head. Fought to make the first steps to get to his feet again, and continue the struggles that had brought him to the edge of giving up.

At last, he raised his head. When he was able to do so, the bird of flames disappeared from his body, with one last cry of love that only was heard in his mind. A hand came over and tried to help him to his feet, but he pushed it away, not wanting the help. Stumbling a bit while doing it, he got to his feet and let his eyes grace down the clothes on his body. The edges were burned and sooty, a bit of smoke rising from some places.

It was well enough for him. All he wanted and needed was the clothes still to cover the scars on his body, and they did the job well. Looking to the side, he saw the owner of the hand that had tried to his him. Tyson stood smiling at him, and he snorted and looked straight forward again, not noticing he burn the boy had on his hands after having touched him. His skin, hair, even the nails on his fingers and the robotic arm seemed to glow white with heat.

Getting back to where his breakdown had begun, his violet eyes reached the starved body, so far away from him. And yet it felt like a sting in his heart just looking at it. He knew he had to do something other than just looking at it from afar, so he turned to his two teammates, both looking at him and trying to hide their smiles. "Tckk… Take c-care of Ta-Tala… Ke… -ep hi-him calm i-if h-he sh-sh-should wake… I ha-have someth-thing t-to… do."

It was the first time he let them hear his disability openly, though it was merely whispers, and though his face showed nothing, they could see in his eyes that he hated it. But if he should do anything good for their group, he had to do the only thing he was good at when beyblading was no option. He had to lead.

But one thing was more important than leading was to have a clear mind while doing so. So he stepped forward and walked through the crowd that had assembled around them at the birds trick and strode directly over to the body lying on a blanket on the ground. Slowly, he let himself slide down beside the body. Slowly, he let himself reach out with his real hand and took some hair out of the man's forehead, leaving a burn mark on the pale, shrunken skin. Two colors. Only demons had that kind of hair.

He looked up when a pair of feet showed in the corner of his vision, and met with the green eyes of Katyenka. He was truly surprised when they did not stare at him with the usual hate.

"I treated him," she informed, sitting down. The look in the violet eyes staring at her made her feel like she was standing in front of an angry reptile, and she felt that she would be dead if she turned her back to him. The wary way she put her legs when her bottom met the ground made this feeling visible to him, even if she did not stare at him with anger or hate. There was some form of pity instead. This was only hate-able.

At her words, the slate rolled his eyes, though not taking them from her for too long. Even if it was Maxim who tried to kill him, he knew this woman was his biggest enemy in the building. Why should it change outside the walls? He did not notice himself how he held the man's one hand and squeezed it in search of comfort.

The woman herself sighed. "Yeah, I know. Why did I tell you that? Figured you had questions about his condition, and I am the only one who can answer." He snorted, and she continued in a hard voice, one hand reaching up to poke at her own throat. "I already know of your wounds. You can hide them from other behind the silence that seemed to always have been your castle, but I know you _can_ speak. Though slowly, it is… understandable."

_She does not want to degrade you, only help_, the voice of the black bird informed him. _Like you she just does not like showing her feelings, even something as low as pity. It is no challenge, just her defense against the world._

How did you suddenly get a human-shrink? the slate asked back, his thoughts angered by both hers and the bird's presence.

_I am the one who have been inside the mind of thousands of humans, unlike what any shrink is able to._

Sighing in annoyance by the words, he looked at her again and opened his mouth. He was just unable to make his mouth, tongue and throat work together, since his whole body did not want to speak while she could hear. Sinking once before opening his mouth again, he asked: "D-d-does he-he… h-h-have an-any wo-… w-wo-wounds?" Even if he felt his voice was even worse than before, he forced himself to keep on. "A-a-an-and i-iss-… w-wh-what is th-e rea-eason f-for h-h-him t-to be un-unconsssscious?"

With the smallest smile, Katyenka let her eyes fall down upon the man. "He has been whipped repeatedly on his back, and the wounds were treated badly on purpose to punish him for whatever he did. And why he is unconscious… my guess is starvation. He seems to have met severe starvation for more than a few weeks, which makes me surprised he is even alive. I have treated the wounds and forced him to drink a bit of soup while he still was asleep. But… I am not sure if he will wake up."

Kai nodded and looked down upon the face, trying to hide both the feeling of love and hate. His face showed nothing, but in his eyes, the anger, disappointment and flaming hate had fought through his barriers, bringing Katyenka to voice a question she had not wanted to say.

"Who is he?"

The violet eyes looked upon her again, and with a surprisingly clear voice, he answered. His eyes were burning. "Вольтера ребенка." The green eyes which once again had become hard could not help but dilate in pure shock, and she even figured out the last sentence and said it on her own.

"Ваш отец?"

His lack of answer told her enough as he once again brushed the man's hair.

("Voltera repenka (Voltaire's child)") ("Vash otec? (Your father?)")

* * *

On the side of the camp, far away from the zone where you felt you belonged into the group of people, two figures sat in one-sided silence. The breeze was cold, colder than it was before, and the emerald looked into the dark, clouded sky, fearing the snow would fall soon. With the many wounded, the cold would make the risk of their death even higher, and the snow would make the journey for the limping, hurt people twice as hard.

If it all was up to him, Bryan would have no problem. Wounded people were only… His eyes grazed over to the fire where his captain laid… a nuisance. No matter how much they meant for any of the healthy, they would risk the lives of more than just themselves. And he could only carry one man on his own… and though the chance of his captain surviving was so far bigger than… leaders were more common than miracles. And they had many good leaders now.

The stone eyes landed upon the citrine hair of said miracle, before falling back to his captain. Brooklyn would die eventually, but he was fighting hard for his life. It would be painful, and even if it would be best for him, Bryan would let no-one kill him to ease his pain. If he should have even the smallest moments of consciousness, his 'ability' to predict the future would be useful… especially now, when the emerald was hiding such a great lie.

"What are you calculating?" a voice asked, and the hand lying on his arm tightened for a second. The green eyes did not turn to him, but stayed on his captain. Though the thoughts should be painful, he felt nothing while thinking them and nothing while watching the only one who had ever seemed to mean anything to him. He did not even give the hand a glance at that hand, even if it burned him in his mind. Even if he knew it re-spread the toxic in his body.

Looking at the old scientist for a short second, he went back to stare at his captain. His green eyes then turned to the slate, and Bryan was reminded of the help that troublesome teenager had given them. Without him, they had not been able to get out of there in the first place. The emerald owed his Rook and Queen something great, but that great thing was out of reach. So Bryan turned his eyes back to the citrine, who were lying beside his two dead teammates.

"Why should I be calculating anything?" he asked, letting his hand form around the foreign beyblade in his pocket. He had only looked at it blue bitchip once since he had found it in Boris' home, and he had not been happy about the sight he found. Ever since his own discovery, Falborg had been pulsing with cold and heat in anger.

He once again was reminded of the hand on his shoulder as it let go of him this time. Instead, it crept around his neck to capture his shoulder in what should have been a friendly embrace, but what to him seemed confusing and unnecessary. The emerald could not understand its purpose around his shoulder. "Your eyes are shifting; you purse your lips a little; your sit slightly forwards with your elbows on your knees and your arms nearly fully stretched. I have known you for many years, I know what your body-language says," the scientist said, smiling. "What is it?"

Maybe he should answer. The emerald was not sure. He felt so confused, and could not decide if he should fight away the emptiness away or if he should think of the lack of feelings as a blessing of security. And he did not know if the reappearance of his empty mind meant he should go back to his old habits or if he should keep the new ones and keep the truth away from his so-called teachers. But the decision had to be made… "It concerns you not," he finally answered, and the scientist nodded slowly, as if he suddenly knew a whole new world of truths.

"I thought I saw something… something new in you. You have changed, right?" The emerald still kept his eyes away from him. It was as though he thought avoiding the old man's eyes kept the toxic from spreading it any faster than it already did, so it had not spread too far if his final decision meant he had to fight himself back to a feeling life. "I am sure I saw feelings in your face before you took your eyes on me. Have you fought off all our effort and training?"

Bryan shrugged, discretely taking the blue blade belonging to Kai out of the pocket. Taking one look at the scientist, he made sure he was staring straight forward before making sure he truly had seen the truth in the blue metal. Even in his half-feeling state, the empty blue in the mighty blade was stinging in his heart as if someone had taken a knife deep into his chest. The normally red middle of the metal blade was empty.

"That you do not watch my every move to find a way to please me is one proof of it. Your denial of answering my question is another. If you were unable to answer because of orders, you would have handled it differently." The green eyes changed to his redheaded captain when he felt the scientist turn his head to look at him. "But the change was only strong enough that you could keep in your new life if you did not face the past."

Letting the blade fall back to his pocket again, he could not help but think of the bird that reminded him so much of his own. The falcon was still changing from hot to cold in that same pocket, and in his state he did nothing to help it relax. Bryan knew that Boris had taken Dranzer away from its owner long ago. Why would the bird leave its nest, especially one as loyal as the phoenix? Voltaire had wanted Kai to use Black Dranzer. Maybe… they had found a way to destroy her?

Yes, the thought felt like a knife in his green stoneheart. Maybe she was dead and would never protect her Kai again.

"I am not here to hurt you, Bryan. I regret everything I have ever done to you. I hope you believe me. You are the most hurtful piece of work I have ever –what the hell?" The man stared breathlessly as a raging fire rose in the near midst of the pitiful camp they held. Only one shadow was standing between the fire and them, a shadow that could only be the one and only Kai Hiwatari. A yell from his friends tried to warn him just as the flames formed a bird.

The heat was overwhelming, even over where they were sitting. And Tala was over there. Just about to jump to his feet and run over, he caught the sight of Ian; the smaller teen running like Boris was chasing him from his place at the other end of the camp. Falling back down to his seat, the green eyes shined in the bright light from the phoenix as it dove down on to the frozen Hiwatari.

The protecting way she was lying over him reminded the emerald of a falcon protecting its eggs, the flaming crown flaring with the wind as it turned its head to the sides, keeping an eye on the people around them. It did so in just five seconds, then disappeared into thin air just as the slate began to rise to his feet. Bryan's eyes only left the scene when Kai had stalked away and the tiny Russian reached their captain and fell to his feet to make sure the other was okay.

Even if the bright flames had blinded parts of his vision for some time, he was able to see enough to notice the relief Ian's figure showed. The captain was safe, and the emerald eyes turned over to where the Hiwatari had ended. By the man they had found, a relative of his, whoever the exact man was. Then back to the captain again.

"She's alive," he whispered, and he noticed how his falcon bitbeast stopped pulsing with hot and cold air when it heard the good news. The scientist by his side still had not recovered from the shock of seeing a fire evolve into a giant creature, and the icy wind replacing the massive heat sent shivers down his spine.

"What was that?" he asked. Despite all his years in Boris' service, he seemed not to be very used to sudden actions of bitbeasts. In a way, it was not very surprising, when his task had been making studies on the student test subjects, not on the spirits they had tried to use for taking over the world. Maybe he even had limited knowledge about the creatures and what powers they truly contained.

The emerald still held his eyes away from the man by his side, and now that the talk did not center about him, he decided to let it stay that way by staying unnoticed. The green eyes slowly moved away from his captain and Ian, moving over to Kai once again, before going back to the red and white body that was Brooklyn.

It just did not take long before something broke his concentration, as the sound of footstep on the forest floor was heard behind him. He stood and turned in a mere second, his hand on his gun and ready to jump. It just did not end in a fight, even if he had thought it was some of the guards trying to sneak up on them.

A tall, slender body was the first thing he saw, with the long, silvery blue hair hanging loose around his face. The soft tips of it were soaked red in blood, as well as the face, hands and the bare and the shoed feet. For that reason, Bryan did not recognize him at first, but knowing it was no guard, he let the gun be for a time.

Behind the first to come out of the darkness was another young man, looking less fit and far more exhausted than the one in the front, even if less blood covered his light clothes and pale skin. This one had short dark hair, but the exact color was impossible to see in the weak light from the moon and the fires far away around the camp. Looking at them and seeing their age, Bryan was forced to assume that it was some of them.

Since the sun had set, the time that had passed made them assume the missing ones had died. These were the first to come out of the forest for hours, and the more time that went on, the higher was the risk of them being the last. But while all of these thoughts passed through his head, the emerald did not care more than to turn around and sit when he had become certain they were no danger to him or the group. Though most importantly, his captain.

The scientist, on the other hand, rose when he saw Bryan would be to no help and went over to the two, catching the last one in sight with shaky hands. "Are you alright?" he asked the first, while helping the other to lie down on the uncomfortable floor. The emerald did not seem interested in their actions, his back turned to them, but he was listening carefully despite the fact that he had decided there was no reason to help them.

His decision was forced to change, though, when the other spoke. "No, I'm fine," a voice said, one that he knew very well. "Most of this is not my own blood. We were in the scientists build with nine other people, but… the rest died. I feared you already had continued the journey away from here when I realized how late it had gotten." Bryan turned his head around again and stared at the still standing figure, when this took the hair out of his face. And became recognizable in the act.

"There is something you have to see," the emerald told Garland, and got a confused look back from the material artist. Bryan got to his feet again, and this sudden interest made the light blue-haired wary of him. He seemed both interested and slightly frightened at the thought of following and listening to the emerald.

"Can I eat first?" he asked, obviously hungry after the long fight in the building.

But Bryan shook his head no. "I think you will see it as more important than food." Fear got visible in the face of the material artist, and he nodded, beginning to take the other's words serious. The emerald lead him forward, towards where the bodies of his teammates were lying, people watching them as it distracted them from speaking around the fires. When they finally reached his team, Bryan stopped a few feet away. "Here," he told, pointing.

Garlands eyes followed the line from the emerald's finger to the three lying on the forest floor, and pure terror spread on to his face at the sight of them. His mouth formed the word 'no', but nothing came out as he walked over and fell to his knees beside Ming-Ming and let his arms embrace her limp body, his face burying itself against her neck and the blood on his hands marking on her ragged clothes. Mystel was lying beside her, and the material artist stretched out his hand and grabbed the cold one of the blond. Even the athlete had not survived his wounds.

The fighter's wild sobs rose to the stars above them, hidden by the black clouds. So loud were they, that even the ones on the other side of the camp could hear his sorrow, and the emotions in his cries were so shaky and torn that they only could share it with him. Bryan just stood behind him, wondering if he would have felt anything if the emptiness of emotionlessness had not forced itself upon him. He decided that he probably would not have.

It took Garland time to realize the two were not alone. When his eyes found the citrine hair, the dilated in disbelief at the sight on the teen lying on the ground, paler than life and seemingly motionless. Drying the blood off of his hands to not stain the white and the tears out of his eyes to show some respect he got to his feet and got over to the one on the ground, not noticing the blankets lying around the body to keep it warm.

Garland made the tips of his fingers touch the citrine between the eyes, only to halt shocked. "H-He is hot," he choked, letting the hand on the citrine head lie on his forehead. The other hand, in his disbelief of the truth, sought for the pulse in his neck. "He is alive, is he not?"

The only thing he received from the emerald was a nod, but it was all he needed. He had had plans of making them a grave, but now, the plan was put aside for something more important. But Bryan only lived to cut his happiness into pieces. "He probably will not survive. I do not know the details, but what I do know is that he was shot in the stomach and chest many times."

The material artist bit his lip, lifting the blanket from him to look at his chest. It was covered in bandages, hiding the amount of wounds that would, no doubt, have made him back away. "He… he must have known," he whispered, and Bryan suddenly neared him, the words interesting him. The emerald had had a bad feeling most of the day, and it all had to do with the unusual behavior of the white teen. "Remember the day he began screaming by the fire?"

The emerald nodded, but Garland continued without seeing it.

"He asked for another way. He begged God or whoever he argued with to give him a new way of doing it. It must have been this. If there is one thing Brooklyn fears, it is physical pain, and that is what he has to face, on top of leading Ming-Ming to her death. I cannot believe he did not know. It does not seem like him.

But even if he knew, we cannot be sure if he survives. Brooklyn fears pain, not death… He might actually die… He might… actually die…"

It was as though the words suddenly found their meaning, and Garland grabbed Brooklyn's one pale hand with both of his own and moved it in front of his face, as if he was going to kiss it. But then he began whispering, not noticing the figure nearing them. "Brooklyn, please… Do what you can. I know we never gave you the respect we should, and never treated you as we should. Jealousy is a monster. Please, Brooklyn, do not die. Of all, one as pure as you, who treat all with kindness no matter what they had done to you, do not deserve to die.

I will do everything. If it was my life to save yours, I am ready to do it." His eyes closed, tears falling down his cheeks as he did so, and his own hands had become as pale as Brooklyn's skin. "I know I do not deserve you… not after what we have been through… But you can't leave me alone. Not like this. Brooklyn, please… please survive…"

A man in the scientist robes sat down on his knees before them. "Do you know this boy?" he asked, and Garland opened his eyes and looked at the man. Still holding on to the hand like it was his last connection to life, he nodded weakly. "He needs blood. Do you know his blood type?"

"No," he said, his long hair hiding his face as he bowed his head. "But… I am willing."

"If we do not know his blood type, it is too dangerous," the scientist argued, but the violet eyes of the material artist stared at him with new anger and determination.

"Is he going to die if he does not get any blood?" The scientist nodded slowly. "Then, I am willing to take the chance."

* * *

I have no comments, other than sorry for the wait and the depression is trying to kill me ^^ Anyway, hoped you liked it, for I have felt so bad for not having gotten it done before now.

Enjoy in joy ^^


	26. Bloodred flakes

Good news: I have gotten a dog. Bad news: She is constantly awake and energetic, and when she is finally asleep on my lap, _I _am often too tired to write. Still, I have decided to try and post every second Sunday, and I that is not possible, then look at the Sunday after that. But since I am still wasting a bit of my time with negative thoughts and working most of my time with my new dog, I cannot promise anything.

Disclaimer: Look at former chapters, please.

Warnings: Look at former chapters. But if you have read so far, you already know them.

Reviews:

Cherry-Toxic: Hehe, you know, I have experiences with disconnecting mobile-phones with internet-connection. My own mobile refuse to let me check my mail when I'm on the run… maybe it's just because I have the oldest phone ever… But never mind. I hope Bryan was not disappointing. And I get the feeling that no matter what I make Kai do, you will have it good. But writing Black Dranzer really have given me a new perspective of the beast. I always kinda liked it, but it only have gotten better. And there is a lot to Kai's father, but he is a Hiwatari, so you can't be surprised, can you? Hope you like this chapter too.

Have a good vacation for those of us who are that lucky, and a good life for everyone ^^ And hopefully me too, even though I kinda doubt it.

* * *

Bloodred flakes

* * *

The snow was falling the next morning, covering the hastily made tents in a layer of fine white. It looked like someone had coated the triangular shelter in icing sugar, giving them the sweet look of sweet bakery. It was cold, despite the wind being nice enough not to swipe past the big, primitive looking camp in slalom between the few trees in the clearing. The fine snow coming from the sky was only barely visible in the weak light of the not yet visible sun.

Kai Hiwatari had had a terrible night's sleep. Not only had the cold been bugging him and keeping him awake when he had lain down when the moon stood high, but also his sub consciousness was running at high speed after meeting his father's face for the first time in his real memory.

He was not the only one having a hard time sleeping, but he was the only one giving up on continuing. After trying for another minute or so, he sat up and snorted out a cold cloud in irritation. Using both his flesh- and metal-hand to try and warm his cold upper body, but found his metal hand more freezing than the rest of him. Silently growling in annoyance, he crawled out of the tent crowded by Tyson and Rei. He had been sleeping a few feet away from the neko.

Outside the tent, he stared at the white world welcoming him. The shelters they had set up in the darkness stood out on the cold forest floor like small hills of snow-covered tents and tarpaulin held with branches. If you ignored the bright colors shining out from a few of the snow-less parts of the tents, it could be thought a deserted landscape.

Fighting off a yawn, he started walking through the thin layer. It squeaked every time he set down one of his feet and left behind clones of the bottom of his shoes as gray-white recesses. His unconscious father had been moved to a tent with the other badly wounded or sick, and in his mind, Kai was trying to convince himself he was visiting the redheaded friend he had wounded. He was not successful in this fight of his mind, but still did not want to admit it and instead forced himself to stop thinking.

The first sight he got as he came to the entrance of the biggest tent in the camp was the form of two people, one lying on the crib-like beds they had built to rise the sick up from the cold dirt, the other leaning over the first one, sleeping in an uncomfortable pose. Adjusting to the light of the tent, which was darker than the outside, the slate could see some long, silverly-blue hair cascading over the lying one. Garland was sleeping on top of Brooklyn, using his teammate's legs as his pillow. Though still shivering from the nightmares of his mind, the citrine was not as pale as before. The reason for this was obvious, looking at the wound on Garland's arm and the needle lying beside them.

The material artist seemed protective towards his last teammate, and would apparently not leave his side. And since the bodies of Mystel and Ming-Ming had disappeared soon after his reappearance, Kai could only guess that the proud, light-blue-haired teenager had given them the honor of a burial. How he would have managed that, without a shovel and the earth underneath their feet frozen solid, the slate was unable to imagine.

Dragging himself away from the sight of the two, he looked the rest of the people in the tent over. Only the ones who had been unconscious were there, which meant twelve in all. A few had awoken, but were calmed and helped by whoever was awake and guarding over them at that moment. Right now, it was one of the neko-jin-adults that Kai did not know, and so he ignored the man and the sword at his side. His father and Tala laid side by side, which helped him in his problem of deciding who to sit with. With his front to the redhead, he sat between them, watching the two in the early morning light that snuck into the tent through the cracks in the tarpaulin and fabric it was made of.

He laid his hand on the hand of his pale friend. It was shockingly cold, even though most of his body was covered by a blanket. Slipping his hand up to the other's face to feel his temperature, he once again found it extremely cold. Also the slim lips of his friend had become blue and dry, the wrong contrast to the pale skin and fiery hair. Using his metal-hand to lift the blanket, he used the other to also feel the temperature there. Only slightly warmer.

His friend was freezing, and no one had done anything to fix it.

Or maybe they had. Unable to feel anything in the false hand, he had not noticed that five blankets laid over him without warming him up. He bit his lip, an unwanted look grazing over his father's body before he took his gaze back to his friend, wondering how to help. He could only find one option… but that would make him look and, more importantly, feel weak. Unfortunately… it just seemed he was dying from the cold, slowly cooling down to zero.

Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he slipped under the covers, smoothly and silently, as if trying not to get noticed by his surroundings. Fire inside the tent would be too risky, so he could see no other way if he did not want the redhead to freeze to death. It would be more effective if he had no clothes on, but… the situation would also be more awkward and degrading than it already was. Lying in his bed already interrupted much of Tala's, and his own, privacy, and so even being naked, or in his underwear, it would be even worse!

Biting down his lower lip once more, he awkwardly put his arm around the redhead, not knowing exactly how to hold another body. At least if he was in a sober state. Trying to lie comfortable, he pulled the other one up over him, letting the wolf use his neck as a pillow. It felt like a one-sided hug, and though the slate was laying quite comfortably, his mind and heart kept pumping the mental feeling of uncomfortability through all of his being. He tried shutting down his mind. Those thoughts definitely did not help him.

All that mattered was that the other got warmed up. Every small breath he felt against his throat felt like a blessing, promising him that there was life inside the nearly stiff body, that his baring was not in vain. His eyes once again reached towards his father as he laid with his back to the man, as though he wanted to do the same to him as he did to the redhead, and a string of anger shut through his mind when he caught the thought. He did not want to help his father. His father had not helped him, why should the slate do anything in return?

As the time passed, the redhead began to feel warmer. Kai could not decide if it was because he had cooled so much down that their temperature slowly became equal, or if it was the other way around and the redhead was warming up again. Maybe it was a mixture of the two. The light that slowly spread into the tent told him time was passing, but though knowing he had been there for long, he did not know exactly how long. But since there were no sounds of people outside, he knew no one was awake. And that he could keep much of his dignity even if he laid beside his friend and bared himself like this. He could get out of from the position in a matter of minutes.

While he was listening for any intruding factors, he suddenly felt something he had not hoped to do. An arm suddenly moved around him, a low groan sounding from underneath his chin. He felt an arm move up past his one leg and up to his chest, the hand on the end of it pushing down on it. It hurt, more than he was used to, as he felt the one above him press down to get up. The metal-ribs pushed down on his lungs in a painful way, causing him to grimace.

Dull, blue eyes stared up towards the face of the slate, just as Kai had gotten control over his face again. The hand on his aching chest was trembling in the strain it was to hold the redhead's upper-body away from the other to see the face of whoever held him. Though unfocused, there was a look of distrust in the blue orbs, until he recognized the teen lying underneath him. "Kai," he whispered, before letting himself fall down again.

The slate tensed now that the other was awake, but in his confused and weak state he did not seem to realize the awkwardness in the situation as he snuggled closer into his neck, instinctually seeking for warmth. He pulled his whole body closer, hugged Kai like a teddy-bear and closed his eyes, shivering slightly. Wish you had not woken up, Kai wanted to say, but as he opened his mouth he felt his throat and tongue curl before he even tried to speak. He closed it again just as abruptly as the thought of speaking had crossed his mind.

"I'm cold," a muffled voice told him as he felt the other one gripping him and his shirt in his fist like a child begging for security and comfort. "K-Kai… Where are we? You hurt me, did you not?" He sounded so confused and small that Kai felt a twisted feeling of pulling him away and shaking sense back into the slim, redheaded body. Tala was so much more stronger than this… this… child…? Yet he knew it would not be good to disturb him in his already weakened state. A state that rightfully had the slate as its cause.

So instead of following his instincts, Kai sought into his heart to find out what to do. How would his other friends react if one of theirs was confused and hurt? Taking a deep breath before continuing, he found that they would have answered the wolf's questions. So, taking one at a time in possible bits, he swallowed his pride to allow a moment of kindness. "W-we a-a-… are in a fooorest… clo-close t-t-to… Boris' bu-bu-il-ding." He swallowed and ignored Tala's confused stare by acting like he was too busy placing the blankets closer around the other. He knew what was going through the redhead's head. "I-I… Did… K-kind of… Hu-urt you." There was no telling if it was the disability or the shame that made the stutter, but Kai chose to believe it was his inability of speaking.

Still, the redhead's eyes became clearer as he studied the face of the teen lying under him. He nearly got the look of his healthier self back, when a shiver coursed through his body and took away his strength. His head fell back down on the slate's chest, his nails digging in to the fabric covering the pale skin under him. At least he was sane enough now to actually hate his own weakness. But the words the wolf formed felt like an exposal of the weakness that tore Kai down. "What happened to your voice?"

It was as if the ice and cold running through the veins of the redheaded teen spread from the nails in the chest of the slate, mixing with his own blood and changing it to a frozen, still flow of red liquid. The insides of him felt like a statue of ice, and an angry fire was in its heart, accusing the redhead of trying to humiliate him. He knew this state, this state before his rage, and kept silent instead of opening his mouth and breathe the angry fire that kept him alive.

Luckily for him, he did not need to answer the redhead. In an attempt of getting up on his hands again as read the frozen face of his friend, Tala turned his head to the side, and the claws in Kai's skin were removed with the haste of a retreating snake. The shivering of the redhead's body changed from shivering of cold and weakness to a more violent kind. Kai moved his metal-hand to drag the redhead in to the sphere of his vision, but the mere movement brought a violent reaction from his shivering friend.

In a flash that Kai was unable to comprehend, the one lying over him had ended on the floor with a gasp of both surprise and anger. Sitting up in his own surprise, the slate moved so he could help his friend, only to freeze and stare in the mix of awe and interest. The redhead lied on his back, his upperbody supported by his elbows. His breathing was fast, hyperventilating, harsh. The blue eyes were wild and ever changing, feelings mixing up in a hurricane.

That was until his breathing slowed, and though his was still shivering, it seemed to be from sickness once again. The look in his eyes settled, and suddenly, Kai wished he had never looked into them. He knew the glare set on him, knew the frozen eyes, but he did not know where-from. They were not filled to the brink with sickness like before, and it was not cold. It reminded him most of their first meeting, at the first world championships, after the surgery Boris had put him through. But then, it had been cold and ruthless, not… this.

The blue eyes staring up at him were hateful, like the whole world was against their owner. Rooted deep into the heart of the eyes laid a bottomless ruthlessness, one ready to demand the redhead to kill the one in his front to reach the goal of his mission. Whatever mission it was, Kai did not wish to be in the way, and he found the pit of his stomach turning as he tried to force himself to take his hand out and reach for his friend. The attempts were in vain.

The spell of the look was only cast for the quarter of a second, the only minute the redhead was able to focus. Then, overcome by his ill well-being, he had to fight to keep awake, his shivering body embraced by the painless darkness of the unconscious. His eyes fell from the violet roses staring down upon him, and even though the hateful, angry look did not disappear, it was no longer directed to anyone. Still, Kai was sitting in a daze for many minutes after the redhead's fight against his body was lost, trying to shake the fear off.

He did not know where he had seen that look before. He could not remember, so it had to be in the past that he had lost. All he knew was that it meant bad, and even though it was long since he had felt the punishment of a whip, his back had begun burning as if he had just felt the beating. Confusedly he debated whether or not he should take the teen on the floor back up in the bed, even if it was obvious. If his glare was just half as bad as that, he understood why strangers on the street covered in fear when he was in a bad mood.

Finally forcing himself to move, he used the robotic hand to carry all of the teen's weight while his normal hand made the moving as comfortable as possible for the unconscious. In his heart, he feared the one that would wake up was not the friend he had come to know and kinda-like over the past years, but his logic pulled it away as simple doomsday-prophecies and his own negative look at life. Giving the redhead one last, concerned look before turning, he left into the light of the morning sun and cold of the mountain winter, not remembering to give the redhead an extra blanket for warmth.

It never once occurred to the slate to look to the side and see the reason for the attack that brought the look of his childhood back into Tala's eyes. In fact, he nearly forgot who lied in the bed beside the wolf, the one who had caused this tragedy even before the rise of the black buildings.

* * *

For once, he felt at home. Watching how the frozen water danced in the slight breeze, falling and rising in the never-ending ballet with its thousands of twins, only to end on the back of his hand and melt into a tiny drop of water. It brought a tingling to his stomach he had never come to know, and tucked the corners of his lips up towards his eyes in one of the few of his true smiles.

Breathing out into the cold air, the damp cloud coming out from between his lips followed the wind along with the white snowflakes, for a moment lying as fog in his vision between his face and his hanging feet. His hand drew the line of the wind, and he felt his bitbeast force the particles to follow, seeing how the freezing flakes suddenly changed direction and stopped their natural dance to follow the steps of his own. Another tingling deep down in his stomach, persuading his lips to broaden a bit more. He never knew there was a feeling like this one.

It was only out of the corner of his eye that Bryan noticed the movement at the entrance of the tent to the sick, and it was only barely that the gray-haired teen was able to see the form of Kai leaving it with an expression on his face that Bryan was unable to decipher at this distance. The still rising, but now higher, sun brought the black and white forest the gray of the shadow. The only chance to see anything else than the colors of a black-and-white photo was the tall grass that he could only barely see from his spot on the high branch. The grass that Ian and his friends hid in.

The green around the cursed building.

The tingling feeling disappeared again and left the teen with a feeling that said it had never existed, and he was forced down the spiral of emotionlessness that had opened for him again not too long ago. Listening for life in the camp, he found what he needed, and slipping down the branch and climbing the tree gracefully, his feet landed lightly on the white snow just half a minute later and moved towards the tent he just had noticed the slate leave from.

He knew who laid inside, yet had not expected the picture of Garland and Brooklyn, the silverly-blue-haired just beginning to wake up after what seemed to be a rough night's sleep. He yawned and tried to stretch his sore neck and back, grimacing every once in a while when a particular movement caused him a small amount of pain. He was pale and looked far sicker than the unconscious teen he had rested upon, even if no bullet had hit him. It was the blood he had given the other, and Bryan could only figure that the material artist unfortunately had been too eager.

Sending a nod to the weak-looking teen that he was sure he owed the life of the still half-dead citrine, he continued to one of the other interesting patients. It was his captain, lying between the man he had saved from the labyrinth of the dungeons and one he could only presume was an injured former captive teenager, his captain lied, his shivering body telling him that there was no betterment of his condition. Without going closer, he turned again and walked out, to where the rest of the camp was awakening.

The cold had made their sleep bad, and caused Bryan to leave the tent just at the first light of the sun, even if he had used most night to stand guard. His body was tired, and that was visible, but his mind was as fresh as the cold forest-air tickling his throat. More and more people gave up the rest of their possible sleep, and the more that left their shelters, the more got pulled out. Ian was one of these, and one second of eye contact, both of them went to collect wood and helped each other to start a fire. The snow made it harder, but also made the fruit of the effort bigger.

Using the fire they already had created, they spread the living flames out to other pieces of wood so that more people were able to get warm. It was needed, and made it possible for them to start making what little food they had. The more people they were, the more food they obviously needed, and Bryan was not sure how many of the new ones would put in the necessary effort to survive this harsh, new life.

Knowing how his words always seemed to create uncertainty, he kept his mouth shut for the time being and simply listened to the talking from those around him. His nearly emotionless face turned blank the moment he saw the scientist come out of a tent of his own, and instantly, he looked away to search for the feelings suddenly absorbed and closed away. He did not know if he should be happy for his step, or if he should be angered that he once again seemed to have no chance of a normal life.

He grit his teeth as the thoughts swarmed like angry bees in his head, and as he stared at the meat dripping fat into the flames underneath it, he did not notice the look the scientist sent in his direction. One filled with danger. Instead he forced his eyes up again and continued to act like he was listening, even if he no longer felt any slight interest. It was just to act like he was a normal person. Just like he had done for many years before.

As the sun continued to rise, more and more people became awake, and the food supply they had thinned so dramatically that he knew what he had to do. Too big a part was set to feed the wounded, and too many people, both new and old, were too weak or too drowsy to be of any help. They had to 'thin out', so the ones they needed were the only ones they had. But… No one would ever agree to do this, for reasons he did not know. And with his knowledge, Bryan knew they had to move immediately, or die.

The problem was just that there was no Tala to spread this important, but supposedly evil, message in a way so that everyone would agree to it. His eyes scouted the camp, desperately searching for one reliable enough to tell, and his eyes ended on Katyenka just as she moved inside the tent of the sick with Maxim by her side, apparently talking amongst themselves in serious matters. Whatever it was, they had to be ready to be interrupted by a gray-haired teenager in a matter of minutes as he suddenly rose from his seat by the fire and strode towards the entrance of the tent.

He heard their voices just before going inside, and halted. From what he could hear, they were talking about the citrine. "He is lucky that he must have shared the same kind of blood as his teammate," Katyenka spoke from what seemed to be merely five feet away from the emerald. "For some reason, this boy is valued both highly and low by his fellow teens, and knowing him better than I, you must have an idea about why."

"In pure talent, he surpasses even the best of the kids in that stupid top-game. It is just sad that such a bright kid is exactly so bright. In his role as a true prodigy, he is unreachable both in attempt of getting him to train and to be able to look at you normally. It always feels like he is somewhere else, in a world of his own." The soldier's way of speaking told that he stood still, which meant he was simply watching the woman do her work. "I have heard he has worked under Boris once before, that the slime found the boy by luck and used his power in such a sick way that he pushed this poor boy over the brink of insanity. I also have heard rumors that he sees the future and can talk to animals, but I do not know if it is true. Only that his connection with nature is… remarkable."

An amused snort was heard from the woman. "So he is respected for his power in games and maybe some supernatural forces, too, but an outcast for his lack of social skill and his too-big-to-accept-talent. Normally I would say teenagers are harsh, but in this case, if he really is as bad as you describe, I might even follow their thoughts of him." Footsteps told that one of them, or actually both, moved, but since they moved away, Bryan kept standing.

Yet he had to strain his ears to follow their words. "Finally getting to the actual subject," he picked up Maxim's mumbling, and the Russian woman grumbled in annoyance.

"I have to check up all my patients, you idiotic soldier," she spat, and the hard woman became recognizable for the eavesdropping teenager outside. "But do you wish to hear about him or not? I did not drag you in here for nothing, and you should know that, Maxim."

One of them shifted slightly, but Bryan could not decide who. "Yes. I want to know who he is exactly. Obviously he is not just a normal prisoner. His state, and even more so his hair tells a tale of its own, but I am unable to understand it exactly. So, who is this man dragged out from the farthest place of the underground? Since we were guards, and you even a leader of a part of the squads, we should know who is locked up, where and how, but I never knew there even was a cell in front of Boris' place." It seemed to bug the bearded soldier a lot to not have all the information.

"I spoke with Kai yesterday… If that is what you can call a conversation with him nowadays. His state definitely does not open him up. This man is his father, but from the mixture of disappointment, anger and hate, and even a slight flicker of love, a relationship of trust and devotion they had many years ago have been broken by one of them. Just another father-son-issue in the family called Hiwatari. He used to work for Voltaire, but I do not know his job. When getting to know who he was, I recognized him even if years and starvation has changed some of his looks. He was in the abbey at my first week of work, then disappeared into thin air. Many thought him dead…"

She paused, then began moving, and from the sound of a spoon clicking against porcelain, someone was either eating or feeding someone. From the deep breath she took, she was just about to speak once again. Unfortunately, he never got to hear her words when a new voice sounded just behind his one shoulder. "Why are you standing here?" Spinning around suddenly and ready for combat, he managed to receive a gasp when his hand stopped just in front of the face of Xiu. Only a neko-jin was able to get that close to him without him hearing anything, and she had already gotten her punishment when he nearly hit her face.

He let the hand drop and watched her for a while, before shrugging. "I was just about to visit Tala," he promised her, even if it was not true. Lying was something he could do without doubt and without having a chance of getting caught. It was very rare that he ever felt stressed in a moment the lying was necessary, and the normal reason for lies to be easy to read was that it always left the liar nervous. Only Boris or another Blitzkrieg-Boy would be able to see it on him as he made sure Tala's current girl would not fear too much of him.

The young, Chinese girl nodded slowly, her insecurity revealing to him that she still did not really like him. Or at least she did not feel comfortable around him. She was nervous of nature, but only so when feeling threatened or in conversation with a new person. The emerald had learned to read people as a part of his requirements to become the ultimate weapon he had never been able to be. "I was too." She looked as if she wanted to continue, but her words were caught and locked away by a frozen tongue. Either she had been about to ask him to give them some time alone, or to ask if he wanted to keep her company. He did not know which, but chose to check it.

"Would you mind if I came along?" he asked, forcing his voice to harsh down a notch. From the broad smile and the fast nodding he had hit right on the spot, and took a hand on her elbow to lead her inside, trying to move around her the same way he had seen Tala do. He did not want to hurt him by hurting her, and so, he did what he was able to even if he had no understanding for love and care.

He had not forgotten the two inside, but after her coming, he could do nothing to continue to overhear their conversation. She required too much of his attention, both to hide his doings and to keep on her better side. Inside, her eyes trailed down the beds, showing that she had not been to visit him here before. When she saw the two former guards, the insecurity came back even stronger than before. New people seemed to be worse than Bryan.

She stood frozen, but still with his hand on her elbow, he made his movement slightly more forceful than intended when trying to get her to move again. She tried not to let her mix of fear and annoyance at his movement show, but the corners of her lips twitched downwards for a moment as she tried to slide past them to get to the redhead. Her eyes were on the ground, watching her one foot get past the other in her walk as she got closer to the redhead.

Bryan, on the other hand, stared directly into the green eyes of Katyenka, biding her silently to seek him when they moved outside the tent. Since the neko-jin was too busy studying the dirt floor of the tent, it was only Katyenka and Maxim noticing, just like he wished. The bearded soldier kept quiet while the woman nodded slowly, just before it would have seemed odd for the girl that he turned his head towards the former guards.

She stopped by the end of the bed, watching the teen underneath the many covers. It was as though she was afraid of touching him, either because her feelings were fading away or because she felt as if she stood in a dream, staring at him, and he would disappear the moment their skin had contact. The fangs could be seen biting her lower lip, but except for this, her face was incredibly blank. As if she had picked up some things by being with her beloved wolf.

The emerald moved to the head of the wolf, staring down at him from that point. Xiu followed slowly on the other side of the uncomfortable bed, but stopped when reaching the midst of his stomach and sat on the floor so she could only barely see the beds on the other side of him. Her slim hand moved up and took his slim hand, which was only slightly bigger than hers. When he did not disappear from her sight at her touch, tears began to well up in her eyes, and she stood again, throwing herself over the still body as she began sobbing violently.

At her sudden show of emotions, Bryan jumped backwards in a mix of fear and disgust, before the two feelings were sucked out of him once again. Still he had no idea how to act in this situation, and turned to the two guards who had been whispering amongst themselves after the two had come. Maxim noticed the mildly lost look in his green eyes, and slowly approached in an attempt of getting a hand on his shoulder. As he succeeded, he tried to hide the look of triumph as he guided the teenage-boy outside with as kind movements as possible, even if he still did not like the boy.

Katyenka followed, and just when they got outside she moved to the front of their group and guided them into the closed forest, away from the rest to make sure no one heard their conversation. She had already realized it would not be a pleasant subject, though she hoped her thoughts about it were wrong. When reaching a small clearing covered in a layer of snow, she stopped and turned to him. "So, what is it you want to say?" she asked, her voice harsh.

"If you were in the Abbey, did you know us?" he asked, even if it was not what he truly wished to talk about. Her words about her work had made him interested, but mostly worried. She shrugged her shoulders, her feelings hidden behind a face of stone. The abbey clearly had set its mark on her too. It did not reach only the kids caught in the place, but apparently the adults too.

Then she nodded. "There were so many. I did not notice many in particular, just put them through the surgeries. Some even without having been hurt. When not in the lab, I stayed in the personnel department. But I am pretty sure that your teammates were among, even if I do what I can not to remember the faces." Her one eyebrow rose as if asking if that really was all. The teen just nodded and breathed in to continue to the next subject.

"That was not what I wanted to talk about." He could feel how his speaking became more professional and how his mind turned into a straight line. Like when he was reporting his observations to Tala. The mind of a robot. "Since my captain is down, I need another leader who might be able to understand my message. The problem is that we are too many. There are not enough hunters to supply food for everyone, we cannot let the hunters use gun and waste ammo on getting food, and a bad hunt would result in massive starvation and risk of the group splitting up. We cannot let that happen, so some have to die for the rest of us to live. It has to be unnecessary, the sick and the wounded."

"That means you will sacrifice your own captain?" Maxim asked, sounding utterly surprised.

"Not necessarily. Friends may carry friends, but if falling behind, we have to give them the choice of leaving their friend or be left. You know your former colleagues are inside that building, getting ready to hunt us down and avenge the death of both their leaders." Once again the lie slipped past his lips without a sign on his face. "And even if Tala is left behind, leaders…" To his own surprise he had to swallow to keep going. That was weird. "Leaders are more common than oracles. His role will be easily filled…"

* * *

There were only just enough food to satisfy every stomach, for no one had gone out to hunt for the last few days. If there was a flaw in their plan of a fast surprise-attack on their enemies, it seemed to be keeping their supplies filled. With so many new people out, they had not even got enough for themselves anymore. But the slate was quite sure not many had noticed yet, and he was working hard to find a solution of his own.

He was trying to finish the last little bite of meat he had in his hand while sitting around the fire like all the other teenagers. Rei was awake and sat beside him, conversing with those around him even if he only knew a little more than half of them. How he could do it, Kai had a hard time understanding. But what he knew was that Tyson was still in bed, sleeping despite the cold that had forced the rest of them to get up. The slate-haired teen just hoped that it would not mean the mostly carefree bluenette would end up getting sick.

A little while after having finished the poor breakfast, Katyenka got into view from some trees near the tent for the sick. She moved inside it after pausing for a moment, but Kai got distracted when a yawning and stretching Tyson dumped down on his other side, the brown eyes blinking tiredly. "Man, it is cold today," he said, not even bothering to argue when he got an amount of food in his hands that was at least ten times smaller than he had been used to at home in Japan. The slate had to hide his surprise at the lack of complaining.

"Can only agree," Rei said, a slight smile on his lips as he looked to Kai. He had not expected the other to answer, since he was their moody Kai, but also did he seem not to speak normally. For whatever reasons, both of the phoenix's friends knew better than to question him while near so many people. The two of them instead began talking past him as if he was not really there, actions that was exactly what he wished from them. He stared into the fire, using his ears to see the world around him now that his eyes did not work properly.

He began to wonder. Would he have been hurt like this if he had followed them from the beginning? Was this the curse of his stupidity? Because he chose his grandfather instead of his friends. If he had just done as Tala had asked of him at followed, he would not feel like being part robot. Or have to speak with a voice that would never be strong or able to speak orders again.

He wondered if his grandfather ever loved him, ever cared, ever had thought him more than a tool. He would never know, he had seen to that himself. If he had never stayed, would his grandfather be alive? If he had done what Tala asked, would the man be okay? Did he even wish for the man to be alive? Would they have killed his dad as punishment? The Hiwatari-line was dying. Had his grandfather realized this?

… Could he forgive his father? Would his father even survive? Would anyone of here survive?

He felt the sobs in the back of his throat and the tears hiding behind his eyes, but he knew from experience that they would never surface. So he freely let his thoughts continue, knowing he would only seem normally distant in the eyes of those that thought they knew him. As long as no one could read his thoughts, his façade would not yet be broken, and he could go on living knowing others did not see him as weak.

But… How should they survive? There was not enough food, and they could not hunt to get enough. No place had enough wildlife to let some untrained hunters provide food for what he could only imagine had to be three-four hundred people. Especially not in the winter. And they did not have enough firearms for everyone, so how should they protect themselves against the people who would probably come after them soon. Even if they had the advantage of their numbers, it would not help them except giving the fastest runners the chance to survive.

Would he be among those who died? If so, his family would be extinct, unless his father still was able to, had plans about or already had spawned. He could neither decide if he should be happy for the world, or let his ingrained honor be angered about the sad faith of his family.

Finally, his eyes drifted to Katyenka, and he was surprised to find the woman merely fifteen feet away with her front towards the group around him. Since they were in the outskirts of camp, she was able to watch nearly everybody as her eyes scouted over them, searching for someone. Then she coughed falsely, drawing attention to herself. "Pack the shelters and put out the fires. Gather everything." Everyone was looking at her, some as if she was crazy. She just continued, answering the unsaid question.

"I would not say it is luck that has made Boris' soldier stay still for so long, but if it was, I can only imagine it is running out. They can come any minute now. That has been reality for long." She sent searching look, her green eyes scowling at the snow. Then, her eyes fixated on everyone again, and Kai was impressed that she was even able to do so. Her stare was an order not daring anyone to defy her. "If I see anyone slack off and try to push the work on to others, I will personally make them carry the baggage. And if anyone falls behind, we have to leave them. We have no time to waste. Our tracks are easily followed in this weather, and we cannot afford delays. Get to work."

Even if she immediately turned around and turned her attention to other places, everyone rose from their place around the fires and began the work. The slate was not even sure if Tala would have been able to get that reaction, and was surer that he would never have been able to get it. And he did not believe it was her age that made her seem more trustworthy than them. But refusing to ponder more over it, he rose to help the rest of the teens and adults.

It was a boring, but easy job to do, and he stayed near those he knew. It was especially when something began to tickle between his shoulder blades that he kept an eye on the ones he had knowledge of, which meant the professional bladers and only them. Just about to throw down the seventh shelter, he heard the bang of the gun he had feared for in a while. Letting his eyes use a millisecond to look around, he found that the only one who was near enough for him to be able to reach and cover for was Lee.

He threw himself to the side and only barely got in between the bullet and the neko-jin. He was lucky that he had used so much time on deciding who to save. Or else, it would have been his chest and not his arm the projectile had been digging into. Unable to stop a cry of pain when the bullet reached in to the flesh right under the elbow of his still living arm, the rest of the group got his attention as more gunshot was heard.

His head turned towards the surprised face of the neko, trying to make the stare of both his good and his bad eye equal through the mists of pain. He formed a word he was not even sure he spoke, feeling his tongue and throat struggling not to cooperate. "R-… Rr-run." If he had said it or not, he still was not sure of when the neko turned to the rest, at least having understood the meaning in his eyes if anything. The lion had turned around and opened his mouth, his order ringing painfully from wall to wall inside the slate's pained mind.

"RUN!"

Everyone seemed to hear, and the spell the surprising attack had cast on the group to freeze them was broken. Some screaming wildly, others deadly silent in their fear, all did what they could to disappear in the trees. The professional bladers did the same, and Kai was on his way to follow even if every movement caused him massive pain through all of his body. But another, more important thought ran through his head when his eyes slipped to the side and fell on a particular tent. Having enough self-control left to see if his two surviving teammates were able to get out of sight, he turned around and sped towards the tent for the sick.

Halfway there he saw Ian stand I cover of a tree, loading a small handgun before shooting towards the trees. From the sounds coming from the other side, two out of three of his shots hit the spot. In his eyes were the fire that often had been missing when he was beyblading, the adrenaline seemed to cross his eyeballs and making him glow. That kid had always been more soldier than blader, and now it was helping them.

Kai heard a bullet hit his metal-arm and found that only place he could seek cover was behind the younger teenager's tree. He threw himself behind it, only barely getting to block the hilt of the handgun flying towards his stomach. As he let the metal-arm drop again, he felt the sting of pain from his wounded arm and forced back the moan. Bark flew off the tree as a bullet flew towards them, seeming to explode when it hit their cover. The slate knew he could do nothing unless he could move without wincing, and used the time Ian used to apologize on blocking out his limp arm.

"Thought you were an enemy," the snake explained unnecessarily before reloading and leaning out from behind the tree. As always his shots were precise and well-organized, so Kai felt safe by his side until the pain in his arm had been forced into numbness by his angered mind. They had known the guards would attack, and yet they were parting in panic and chaos. Nothing could be just this stupid, but on the other hand, the biggest part of the teens were not warriors. They had been hardened by the last year in either imprisonment or the life in the wild, but never had they been trained to fight. Lucky them, Kai thought bitterly even if he wished right now that they could.

"They are running out of the trees now." The slate could not decide if the snake's words were meant to sound happy or sad. It sounded like a mix, like when you watched a crying person laugh through the pain. Now every shot coming from the teen's gun caused a cry from the other side, telling the slate that his words were true even before he got to look himself. When he did so, he saw how the enemy guards used both guns and knives to kill or stop the fleeing teenagers or fight with their former colleagues.

He let his good, violet eye seek over the fallen, coldly checking how many weapons they would lose. The white snow was spotted with sickening pools of red, and it seemed it was close to the same amount they had freed who were lying dead or wounded on the ground. They could not help them. It was a battlefield… no. It was a chase, lion against the calf, and they were going to be slain unless the ones who had fled were extremely good at hiding. And the snow revealed their tracks as well as if a big arrow were following them around.

Luckily, he noticed that the amount of guns in the dying teens' possessions were minimal, meaning most of those carrying one had escaped. He looked to Ian, who had to reload the gun once again. The crimson-eyed teen stared at him while doing so, his hands so trained in their doing that he needed no eyes. "If you are unarmed you are better off fleeing. Not even you are stupid enough to jump into a fight without proper weapons." His words forced the smallest twitch in the corners of his lips. Then the smaller teen's eyes directed to his wounded arm. "Bad spot," was all he said, before turning to shoot once again.

This caused Kai to look down for the first time and find the snake right. Some of his bigger arteries were located there, and he could see the reason for the former pain of his every movement. He could locate the bullet between all the blood, and it was stuck in his bone just were the inner muscle of his lower arm began. If he was unlucky, it had been severed and would take painful time to recover. And luck was rarely on his side.

While looking at it, the pain came back when his brain realized how bad it was, but he closed it off again. He stared at the shooting boy in his front, and opened his mouth. "I-… Im noott he-re t… to f-fi-ght." He received a questioning look before the younger got back to his work of killing. "Th-the si-iick." Realization hit the violet-haired's face, and he was so taken aback that he stopped his firing for a few seconds. Then, determination crossed his features, and he nodded grimly as if Kai had asked him to die for him.

"I will cover for you." He looked towards the tent, searching for the nearest tree, and when he saw their next hiding place about twenty feet away from the entrance of the tent, he looked back into the slate's violet eyes. "Follow," was all he said as he got done reloading his near-full magazine, then ran out from tree, shooting everyone making an attempt to shoot at him. The slate followed, having expected nothing less of the brave youngster, and reached the next tree without even getting near a projectile. "Go," Ian demanded, loading the empty magazine once more.

"I-Ian…" The slate swallowed to get more control over his mouth, but it did not help. "Pr-promise me… That y-you… d-do not die." A new look of surprise made the younger freeze, and he gaped at the slate. "When yo-you… hhave bul-… bul… bullets le-left… for tw-two m-ma-magz'… Flee."

The snake shook his head as if to clear his mind once again, then motioned for the teen to keep going. "You clearly have hit your head on something," he sneered, as though the slate had insulted him. Probably, he reacted like that because he did not know any other way to react towards this teen. "Now, go!" He nearly dragged the slate teen out of the cover, but Kai kept his balance and used the younger's power to get immediate speed. He jumped through the entrance and ended on the ground just in time to be missed by a bullet, going into a state of blinding pain when he landed on his wounded arm.

When he got back to the real world, he found Bryan a few feet away from him with the citrine in his arms, bleeding from a scratch when the bullet that nearly had hit the slate passed by his cheek. From his place on the ground, the slate could not see the small tear of regret mixing with the blood when the gray-haired looked unemotionally at his captain, or the faint look of relief crossing his cold face when he saw the slate on the ground. Without a word, he took the citrine over his shoulder and bore him with one arm so that he could use the other to create an opening in the thin fabric with the knife in his free hand.

It was with the feeling of painful rage in his heart that got the slate back to his feet, stray bullets flying through the fabric of the tent. But the fire in his eyes died fast at the sight he met. He stood between the still bodies of Tala and his father, his eyes changing from one to the other. It was as though the sounds of gunfire from the outside suddenly came from another world. Like glass and not only fabric parted him from the outside, and the bullets picking holes in the tent came from some distant imagination. There was only the tent and the ones in it.

Had he not been wounded, there was no problem. He would have used his robotic arm to bear the heavy weight of the two and the normal arm to steady them. But he could not move the normal arm even the smallest bit without getting paralyzed in pain, and risked dropping one or both of them if he did not have it to help him.

Gritting his teeth, he decided to try anyway, moved to his father and tried to pick him up. With only one arm, it was nearly impossible. He dropped it. If he could not get even one of them in his arm without problem, how should he get the other one too? His eyes strayed over first his father, a mixture of hate and… He would not admit what it was mixed with filled him. He then looked at his friend. He was the reason he was lying here. He was the cause for the wolf to be unable to flee on his own two feet.

Running footsteps sounded suddenly through the walls of the tent, and he lifted his head just in time to see Maxim come through. If he remembered correctly, the soldier had been one of those who had fought, but it seemed he was now out of bullets. He froze where he stood, and was rewarded of standing at the entrance by having a part of his ear cut off. He jumped to the side, holding it and fighting hard not to reveal to those outside that they had hit something that was still alive by not moaning in pain.

Kai simply watched him with irritation before turning away. Enemies had become friends, but feelings were still the same. When the man got to his feet, he did not meet the proud stance he would have thought. In its place were a slouched stature and a lost look as the violet eyes darted from one to the other. Understanding the problem and still feeling bad about the condition he had left the teenager in, he decided the least he could do was to help.

He moved over to the adult lying in the one bed and took him in his arms. Catching the eyes of the teen, he held it and felt he could feel the gratitude hidden behind the false anger. He held out one of the metal ear muffs he had seen long ago, and the slate decided to take it, despite what his pride told him. Sending a last annoyed look at the soldier, he watched the man use Bryan's newly made entrance. Then he turned to the redhead, awkwardly lifting him with his one arm while trying to keep the heavy ear muff-thingy between his metal fingers.

He heard the sound of running feet outside once again and decided he would not take the chance for it to be the enemy. Move as stealthily as possible he strode towards the rip in the tent fabric and stepped outside, running and jumping over the many dead bodies towards the dense trees as fast as possible despite the arm and weight. He could hear someone running behind him, and the bullet passing near his head just as he got in cover of the first protecting tree told him it had to be an enemy. After having run for fifteen minutes, he could no longer hear the harsh breathing and heavy steps of the man. Having run for ten other minutes, Kai stopped and looked around, both to make sure if he really had lost his pursuer and to search for the rest of their group.

His breathing was nearly back to normal by the time he was sure of their safety and he continued to walk away from their ruined camp. After five other minutes, an aching feeling in his head told him why the man had stopped running after him even if he had no one to carry and no wounds to stop him. It felt like someone was clawing at his brain, trying successfully to rip it to pieces. Gritting his teeth, he sank the redhead to the cold ground and put on the ear muffs. The mere weight of the metal protection made them hard to bear, but at least this pain was on the inside.

He ignored both the pain on his head and in his arm and continued steadily with his friend in his false arm. They had to have been walking for a few more minutes when the slate looked down and found a dreadful sight. Falling silently from the redhead's nose was blood, and he seemed to cry the red liquid. Panic edged through him as he remembered the taunting words of Boris.

"_To put it simple, we have a device that tunes in on the human brain and... Well, force it to overheat. But, the method is uncertain. Everyone over 19 dies, but from 19 years old to 12 years old, nothing is certain."_

He just hoped it was not too late as he slipped off the earmuffs and put them on the redhead's ears and then forced himself to take the wolf in his arms again. They had to move. If he lost consciousness, the tracks it the snow would lead directly to them. He had to find something to... They had to get away...

He was stumbling over his own feet as the blurriness of his bad eyes seemed to infect the vision of the good one. He had no feeling for how much time he had used since giving Tala the protectors. Big, fuzzy things fell onto his face, but he did not recognize the feeling as he tried to run again, only to lose his balance and fall with the wolf lying beneath him. In his pained state, he only barely was able to check that the earmuffs still covered the redhead's ears before rolling over and look into the white sky. He recognized the fuzzy things to be snowflakes, and smiled at the thought of the tracks to be covered.

Then, he closed his eyes to give in to the pain in his brain, his last thought a pray that the wet feeling in his nose was not a nosebleed that meant he was about to die.

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Ta-daa! Finally done ^^ And it is not intended to be yaoi in the first part, even if it may seem that way. Just so no-one gets confused... It is just intended to be a unendingly awkward scene.

And I hope you are not disappointed about the time it took for me to make this. Incredibly slow, especially for me.

But enjoy in joy ^^


	27. Revelations

I am late… And no-one is as bothered about that as I am. It was first three days before I had my last deadline that I got inspiration, and even then, I had not enough concentration to continue writing without breaks. The Monday after, I was on my way to Prague. I am _so_ sorry. But this is a long chapter, so I hope it makes up for it. The next chapter will be late, as I have agreed to help GatewaysDiary with a challenge. It will probably first come in October. After the next update, I will once again try to have only two weeks between every update.

Disclaimer & Warnings: Look at former chapters.

Reviews:

None

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Revelations

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There was no wind at all. It was still like a land of the fairytales, the air clear and cold, making the few colors in sight seem sparkling and many shades stronger than they truly were. The snow on the ground seemed silver filled to the brim with tiny, sparkly diamonds, the gray and brown of the naked trees forming light, heavenly patterns of different, brilliant shades in the bark. The few fir trees' green needles were several times darker than normal, a surprisingly beautiful myrtle green. Except for those needles, the landscape was glitteringly light, with the bright rays of the morning sun complimenting the few colors of the snowy grounds.

If there had not been two unconscious figures lying in the snow leaning towards one of the bigger oaks, one on top of the other, there would have been nothing else than those needles to contrast the light. But the two was there, one with unruly, gray hair that fit extraordinarily great with his surroundings. Unfortunately, his clothes were mostly dark, wet from the snow he laid in as they were. The other would fit a lot better with his white clothes and the light, citrine hair, but the clothes were darkened red by his many wounds.

One of them, the one lying on top, stirred slightly, and Bryan pushed himself off the white one, holding his head with a groan. He had forgotten about the sound until it was too late, and was surprised to find that he was still alive even without those ear-thingies. It occurred to him he might have to check up on the other, and listened to his breathing for a few seconds. His heart began pounding hard when he did not hear anything, and just as he was about to pull away, he felt the reassuring warmth from the others breath. He was still alive.

How it was possible Bryan began to wonder as he pulled back and realized how stiff he was after having laid in the cold for so long. He could not really feel the tips of his fingers, and his toes were the same. First step of survival was food and shelter, but since they would have to move on the minute he had gotten food, shelter would be a waste of time. But an unconscious still had to eat, and Brookyn still did not seem to come around for a while. He could not just find some meat, roast it and expect the prodigy to be able to eat it, not matter how small the pieces were.

It had to be liquid in order for him to swallow, but the emerald had no pot or the like to make the food in. It was a problem he had to find a way to fix, yet for now he decided to make a fire so at least he knew Brooklyn was not going to lose any limps. Maybe he got an idea while collecting wood or doing similar tasks. The most important thing was to make his companion survive. A part of that was also to find the rest of the camp, so he could get the treatment he needed in case it actually was possible for him to recover.

He stood up abruptly, moving his aching fingers and toes to make sure the limps were still alive and able to get warm once again. It hurt like hell, but from what he could feel, he had no severe frostbites. The most hurting one was the smallest finger on the left hand, and as he watched it, he noticed some blisters on its tip. Sighing in annoyance, he cursed that his relationship with pain was slowly changing. But most of all, he cursed that his hand could not just get it over with and let the stupid finger fall off it that was what it wished to.

Shaking off the thoughts, he cringed off his coat and t-shirt and put the coat on the unconscious teen's body while wrapping the t-shirt around his head as well as he could, not really caring that his already numbly-freezing body was exposed to even more cold. Then he moved the boy's hands to be hidden in his armpits, but found that he was at a loss about how to protect his feet. Shrugging, he decided he had done was he could do for the moment and walked into the forest to find wood for the fire.

The layer of snow was thick, and he nearly tripped over a stone he had thought was simply a slightly bigger pile of snow and ended on the ground with his bare upper body. He swore and realized it would not be possible for him to find anything dry in his terrain. The wood he had to start the fire with was going to be soaked wet by the small, white crystals. So where he lay, he used his already stiff and cold hands to dig down under the snow and find the many twigs and branches he knew would be there. It was impressively fast that he found the amount he wanted, and turned around to retrace his steps back.

Returned, he used his heavy boots to rid an area near the unconscious one, and then placed the smallest pieces of wood along with a few dry leaves. He then drew some matches he had stolen from a shop in Paris, only to find them too wet to use. Instead, he sought for two stones and hit them together, and his trained hand created a spark. It hit the wood, only to perish as they, too, were too wet to catch fire. Swearing loudly in Russian, he dropped the stones and found his blade instead, launching it to cause the heat that – might – create the flames that he begged for.

He found that the blade only heated slowly, no matter if it was his skill at the game or the opposing elements of fire and wind. The sun was getting higher into the skies, nearly right over his head, before he finally got the results he was waiting for. The flames came so suddenly they nearly damaged his blade before he reacted, and he immediately attacked it with all his knowledge of survival to get the flames to keep alive. As soon as he realized the flames were going to survive and grow, he put a proper amount of extra wood on top of it and took every other piece so near that it could dry in the heat.

Now all he needed was some food, and something to cook it in. Sitting and staring into the vague flames he was reminded of the stone by a dull pain in his foot, which decided to show right that moment. If he had nothing else, he could… With new determination, he stood up and moved back towards the stone, his blade in hand. As soon as it got into sight, he launched the blade, trying to make a slicing wind that could cut it in the middle. He did everything he could to make round, to create a recess, but his winds were created to destruction, not art.

He ended up having a split stone where one was a curved slightly downwards where the two parts had been cut, while the other had a round top. He frowned thoughtfully, but his bitbeast stopped his pondering. Before he found a solution, it attacked one part of the stone as though it was an enemy; the fast-moving plastic creating sparks as it connected with the uneven surface of it. Using the smallest winds to tear it apart, fragments of the stone mixed with the flying pieces of the beyblade that also fell from the collision. The final conclusion came just when Bryan's naked upper body began wanting to go back to the fire.

It ended up looking like a bowl with many sharp edges and corners at its hollowed bottom and sides. He picked up his damaged beyblade without checking the extent of the damage it had suffered from the bitbeast's hard treatment of its own confinement. He lifted the heavy remnants of the big stone that had caused him to fall earlier that day, letting his fingers dig out dust and debris from the cruel creation of the final outcome. When his fingers finally got out from the depths of the hollowed stone, blood seeped from one of them without his notice, cut open by the roughness of the inside of the newly made bowl. The cold made him nearly unable to feel the extra pain.

He swore as he saw the red liquid and put the finger in his mouth to lick off the blood before taking it out again to use. The thick, metallic liquid filled his mouth nauseatingly, but he did not care. He moved back towards his unconscious companion, picking up the dry berries that still remained on some bushes and using his knife to file off the inner bark and to extract the root on other plants and trees which were edible. To survive, he needed to use everything he could find, now that the winter was coming and making the remaining plants wilt and freeze with its snow.

Back by Brooklyn, he dropped everything he had collected at the sight of the dying fire and once again was forced to use all his knowledge in camping to get the falling flames to rise once more. He ended up using nearly all his remaining wood on getting the fire stable, and cursed at the knowledge of having to risk its survival to go out and find more. He made rather stable formation of stones and logs to balance his newly made pot over the heat, and then put snow into it in lack of better water. If they were unlucky, the hollowed stone would crack when heated, and they would sit there without food and probably with a dead fire, too.

Bryan allowed his body to heat up a little by the fire, even if he felt it was a waste of time. He could not care less about the health of his skin, toes and fingers as long as the citrine that he had curled up by the other side of the fire was going to survive. The snow in the hollowed stone was melting slowly, meaning the heat _was_ able to get through the thick bottom. Hopefully it could get warm enough for the snow to boil.

When he could feel the sharp, hammering pain in his most frostbitten finger again, he decided he was warm enough to move again and stood to collect wood and readied his gun on the way. If he was lucky, an animal showed up, and they would even have meat for the soup he was trying to mix together. He had not that much knowledge about what a sick or unconscious person needed to eat to stay healthy, so he assumed a bit of everything would be alright.

Digging through the snow with his feet, he found branches and twigs, some long, some short, some thick or thin. While working through the undergrowth of the forest, he also tried to stay as quiet as possible, and the gun was ready in his hand, all precautions to lure wild animals closer and kill them. The forest around him was still in the beginning, the birds left in the cold terrain silent as they watched him warily from their hiding in the trees. He noticed, and knew no animal would dare getting close to him when the forest was as still as that.

Sighing deeply and readying for the extra cold, he sat down in the snow with the wood in his one arm and the gun resting on his knee, closing his eyes and breathing slowly and silently. He sat there, listening to the world around him without using his eyes. It was a whole new sensation, to see the nature without his eyes' deceiving glance, and his lips widened a little when the birds slowly began singing as they no longer saw him as a threat. He knew he could not stay here for long, not with the fire burning so close to Brooklyn and the snow that might already be water and having begun to boil. But the predator, the hunter, had to be patient if he should get success, and distracting thoughts like those was the reason why some people were unable to get their prey.

Suddenly the forest grew silent again. He thought he was the cause of it, until the sound of flickering giant wings reached his ears. Slowly, he opened his eyes again and lifted his head towards where he thought the sound had come from. The sight he met was surprising, yet he did not allow bad conscience to stop him. A bird of some kind sat on a branch thirty feet up, and he could see on the profile of its beak and the size that it was a big kind of falcon. Begging a silent apology to his bitbeast, the hand with the gun rose, and he forced his cold finger to pull the trigger.

The big bird saw him and spread its wings to flee, but it never got into the air again. He saw how one wing was slammed upwards and heard a loud crack already before the mighty creature fell towards the ground. It screeched in pain as it hit the branch it had just been sitting on and continued downwards, flaring with one wing in attempt to fly away from the pain and threat. It hit only one more branch on its downfall, before finally landing on the cold snow, making small crystals flare into the air.

Bryan stood, letting the wood fall, and strode towards the bird as fast as he could. He hoped the bird would be dead, so his conscience towards his falcon bitbeast would not have reason to be worsened. When he arrived he realized he would not be that lucky, as he stared into the dark, piercing eyes of a predatory bird. It was a lanner falcon, if he remembered correctly, and the fourth largest of the falcons. With Falborg as his bitbeast, he had of course studied the birds, and that was also the reason he why a bird living in open areas had come into a frozen forest confused him.

It opened its beak and cried its cry once again, trying to drive him away even if its damaged wings would be its death no matter his next action. It had landed on its back, so he knew it was either was confused after its fall or wounded other ways that just the wing. Else, it would be trying to get back to its feet and attack him. It was vulnerable now, and he had to strike to get a minimal amount of wounds himself.

He took his knife out again, and placed the gun in his pants behind his back. He had to save the amount of bullets, even if it meant brawling with a bird, which had piercingly sharp and very strong claws. He attempted to move faster than the bird was able to react to, but the surprise of his suddenness made it twitch and hit. As he pushed the knife towards its throat, its one foot flew upwards and clawed at his right hip, and as it fought to breathe with a slid throat half a second later, its grip tightened while it slowly died.

He jumped backwards mindlessly to free himself from the claws, and new red lines was ripped open on his skin and his pants were damaged. He swore and picked up the now limp body of the bird in his one hand, the wood in the other, and walked back as well as possible even if the wounded leg barely was able to carry him. He wondered if he should have wasted a bullet on the bird. He could not afford this kind of injury.

When he finally reached the fire, he sat down, put more snow into the boiling water in the hollowed stone, took the wet wood near the fire to dry and used his knife to get through the skin on the chest of the falcon. He slowly cut it loose from the meat, and cut strips of every eatable part he could get without reaching the intestines. It was first when he had taken all the meat from the bird, chest, legs and wings, and had laid them beside the roots, bark and berries, that he broke its ribs and cut down to its lungs. He took them out and took the heart, found kidneys and liver, and discarded the corpse between the trees. He did not care for wild animal to sniff them out. They would not dare attacking him when they already had found food.

He looked at the snow in the bowl over the fire. It had nearly melted, and so he decided to supply the cut strips of meat and plants already now. Then he dried off the blood from his hands with the snow on the ground and looked at the wound on his hip. A lot of blood had already left his body. It had to be bandaged, but he had no extra fabric to use. It also had to be cleaned, but he had nothing to do it with. He looked over at the citrine, who seemed to have warmed up despite his lack of movement. And around his head was the t-shirt still, keeping him warm.

It created an inner turmoil. Should he risk the citrine's warmth for bandage, or risk to bleed to death to keep the other warm? As long as the other was unconscious, he needed help, but he lost a lot of his body's heat if his head was kept uncovered. Bryan sat there, calculating and staring into the still, white forest, blood still seeping from his wound and coloring the fairytale land. Then he finally made a decision and reached out for the fabric hiding the orange hair.

When the t-shirt lay in his hands again, he took out the knife to make knew strips. He tried to make it as long as possible, and when there was a minimal amount of shirt left, he was satisfied and took off his pants of make it easier for him to bandage his hip. The cold definitely was not helping his wound, either. He needed to keep warmer from now on, or the wound could get infected or worse.

Their food had been boiling for quite a while, but he did not know exactly how long. The sun was still high in the sky, but it was falling. Even though it was hard for his patience, he decided to wait for as long as he possibly could, in case the bacteria that probably had been in the roots and meat when he dropped it into the water were still living. But it would take long to eat, and he wanted to search for the rest of the surviving group before the end of the day.

He sniffed at the wind, and the smell of the soup made him realize how hungry he had been. He felt a flicker of greed, which made him reach out for the pot with the remnants of his t-shirt protecting his hands from the flaming heat and grab the bowl. It still nearly burned his fingers through the thin fabric, but even if it felt like someone was trying to cut off his near-frostbitten fingers with a dump axe, he carefully balanced it all the way down to the snow.

He looked at the citrine once again, and narrowed his eyes slightly. How to feed one who could not even open his mouth, let alone sink, when you had no spoon? His eyes fell on the remnants of the t-shirt again, and he nodded to himself and dipped its tip into the soup. The strips of meat were so short and thin that he could fish them up with the edge of the cloth, along with a few berries, a root and a long piece of bark which now looked like spaghetti. If it did not slip down into the teen's throat, at least he could get some nutrition out of it from it lying in his mouth.

Lifting the fabric out of the soup, he directed it towards the mouth of the teen. Then he froze in midair, staring disbelieving at the teen in front of him. Did he just see the citrine move? The white teen's lip twitch again, and his tongue slipped out of him mouth, licking from corner to corner over his upper lip. A low groan, and then the blue eyes opened and stared into the sky. A weird smile came upon his face as his bright eyes looked at the naked treetops and gray-blue heaven.

Then he sat up, not noticing the boy in his front immediately, and winced at the pain that seemed to come from his head as he moved. Once again his tongue got visible between his lips, which had dried in the cold air. His eyes then focused on the emerald, and he opened his mouth, suddenly looking slightly horrified. "But… I shouldn't be here!"

* * *

It was as though someone had put Big Ben inside his head, and it was ringing the hundredth hour of the day. His skull was pounding painfully, rhythmically, and he felt like begging someone to bore a hole into his skull to relieve the pressure that was building up inside. While some parasite sat in there and had a techno-party, his body felt like fog, like it was floating despite the knowledge that the cold on the back of all his body parts came from the earth underneath him.

He did not dare open his eyes. Just the thought of the light that might additionally make him feel his head was about to split apart made the pain worsen. It was first when he heard movement near him that Kai forced his eyes to open, and his prophesy got fulfilled when his headache doubled, and the pounding fastened. Everything around him seemed to reflect the light that he guessed came from the sun, and the whiteness of the rays reaching his eyes made him feel blinder the he actually was. Weirdly, it was the bad eye that cleared first, and through the blur and darkness he could make out something red above him between all the white.

He forced his detached body to sit and took his head in his hands. He was surprised that he could not feel the hammering that happened underneath it through the skin on his forehead to his fingers and palms. In the darkness of his hands, the added pain subsided once again. He heard movement again, and the sound of a fire eating away at the wood it was built of, and smelled the scent of roasted meat. It caressed the edge his nostrils, which had become frozen from breathing the cold air in the time he had been unconscious.

Trying once again, he let a little light slide into the confinement of his hand, slowly getting his eyes used to the burden of light. He did not know when he finally was able to remove the hands, but as soon as he could, he did so and scouted the area. The fire was a few feet beside him, and in a radius of about ten feet around it had the snow seemingly disappeared. The smell of food came from sticks sitting in the ground very close to the fire, and on each of them were a chunk of meat. They were roasting, even if it was slowly.

But the most important thing was the one sitting between Kai and the fire. The one, who had been the source of the red he had seen in his blurred vision. It was Tala, finally having awoken, who sat half-asleep in front of the fire with his back to the slate. Massaging his temples with the normal hand to relieve his head from some of the pain, he used the other to help him stand, so he could get closer to the fire and the warmth.

His movement woke the wolf up, and he was met by a small, tired smile as he finally settled on the ground beside him. "So you finally decided to wake up," he stated, his cheeks flushed red and coppery flakes of dried blood in the corners of his nostrils proof of how close he had been to dying. He reached for one of the sticks and turned it to make sure the meat would get equally roasted on all sides. "I have been taking care of you for far too many hours. Do you know that you never seem to freeze? I would not mind taking care of you again if you need that little care." The wolf showed his teeth in a grin, but Kai just rolled his eyes and kept his mouth shut. This made Tala's smile even wider, as he did not know the reason to his friend's silence.

The slate stared into the flames in silence, and felt how his stomach twisted in hunger. He did not know how long the meat had been near the fire, but he hoped it was long enough. He could only guess how long he had been unconscious, but it had to be two days like last time. Tala had awoken, despite his injury, which was a good thing. In this state, the slate was very sure he would not have been able to do find food or make fire.

He suppressed a yawn and covered it with the hand which was made of flesh, then touched his cheek on the way down. His facepaint was gone; he could not feel the rough surface of the color. It made his anger, and a weird form of fear, flare. He hated how his face looked without it. It made him feel weak and small, young. His hand slipped right down to his pocket where he still had the container of the paint, and his hand put it one with trained movements. He did not even need a mirror. He had been using the concealment for longer than he remembered.

The redhead watched him, and he did not even try to smile now. He turned his attention to the food again and removed the first stick. There were four in all, and one at a time, they were removed from the heat and set to cool so much that it was possible for them to eat it. Kai got done with his artistic doing and looked at the work of the redhead, only to let his eyes search for any kind of other edible substances. They needed more to eat than just meat if they wanted to survive and stay healthy and moving.

"You can just ask," Tala say and gave reached out for the few things he had been able to collect. Nuts and roots. "We have nothing to boil it in, so I only collected the things that I know for sure is possible to eat without getting warmed or boiled first." Not really caring for it, Kai lifted his robotic arm and reached out for his share. The wolf's blue eyes widened and he jumped backwards in surprise. "Oh my…" he breathed, staring disbelieving at the metal attached to Kai's shoulder. The look he received from the slate was simply confused.

Then realization hit the violet eyes. Kai let the arm drop and reached out with his normal hand, not daring to look into the eyes of his friend. Shame overcame him, even if he had no idea of the reason for it. It was not his fault that he had lost his arm or his speech. It was Maxim who should feel the shame, not him. Not Kai.

As soon as he felt the food in his hand, he drew it back to himself, and the shame suddenly turned into despise and hate at the thought of how he reacted now. He should meet the look in Tala's eyes dead-on, not look for a hole he could crawl into. It still required a lot from him before his face met Tala's and the eyes showed the determination he normally radiated. The blue eyes in his front were still widened in shock.

"What did they do to you?" the wolf asked finally, having recovered from the shock, and for the hundredth time the slate hoped the loss of his speech just was a dream."What did he do to you, Kai?" The slate did not wish to hear the name of whoever the wolf was talking about, but he already knew. It was just different when the name actually was said. "Was that a new way to make you perfect to Voltaire?"

It felt as though someone spilled a bucket of freezing water on top of his head. His eyes fell to the ground again, his insides stood still, and the mist that had clouded his mind a few days ago began to come back. And in that frozen, foggy state, rage began to build. Against all logic, it directed towards the wolf in his front. How dare he suggest such a thing? How dare he act like he cared? How dare he even speak of the man?

The slate rose in a sweeping motion and turned away, the fog thicker than the rage, and he began to move away without thought to where. Unfortunately he was stopped by a hand on his arm, gripping him so hard he was sure it would bruise. His head turned back slowly, the violet eyes glistening with fire, but the heat in them did nearly vanished when they were met with icecold blue seas. "What? Did he steal your tongue, too?"

Kai snorted, but did not answer. It would be revealing a weakness, and in his current rage, as well as his more normal states, he would not do so to even the weakest person. He just used the metal hand to push the other away, and as the wolf avoided it as though it was acid, the task proved easy. Continuously he sat down and took the stick the wolf as set to cool away from the fire, and ignored the redhead as he began eating in his forced silence. This was proving to be some hard, lonely hours for those two, despite the strong feelings of friendship they knew were between them.

He felt Tala's glare all the way through, but the redhead knew he could force nothing out of the teen by his side if the other did not wish so. He could not know the truth about the silence, so he let the tension between them be untouched and ate his part of their food. The sun was setting when they were done, but none of them felt more tired than they were able to move. Tala's flushed cheeks were getting soaked with drops of sweat.

He tried to suppress the shiver building up from his back, and stood as soon as he saw the slate eat his last piece. In all honesty, he was not hungry, but had forced himself to eat to hide his state, and now that the other was done, he did not care for the leftovers. "Come on. If we hope to find the others, we have to move. Though I do not know what the hell has happened thanks to the silence of a certain someone, but as my guess is that you did not just happen to take a stroll with me in your arms when the head-ache-thingy came, we had to be fleeing. We still risks getting caught."

The slate did not even give him a side-glance as he rose and began looking around to get a sense of directions before the sun set and left them in darkness. He recognized the way he came from, and tried to remember the way people ran. The problem was that probably they ran further away than he had been able to before losing conscious, and they had probably started moving as soon as they all had woken up.

He decided the best road they could take and began walking without looking at the redhead, fighting off the fog in his head. He had to survive, and the one he had been before Dranzer's help could not survive anywhere. His head had to stay clear, he had to be focused. Somewhere behind him he could hear the redhead follow him; the footsteps were surprisingly heavy. Even if it made some alarms ring in his mind, he refused to look back at the redhead.

His clothes had been soaked by the snow they had been lying on, and he tried to suppress the shiver when the cold air and slicing winds began to sneak up underneath the heavy clothes. The wolf claimed Kai did not freeze, but the slate could not agree there. At least not at the moment. His mind turned away from the thought of his grandfather and dying family and embraced the cold as a free ticket to untroubled thoughts. But the wolf had other plans, and when the sun no longer created shadows and the stars began to form above the clouds, he spoke again.

"I remember how you feel," the redhead mumbled, and the slate had to strain his ears to even hear the words. Then his words got stronger, as if he no longer talked to himself, but directed them to the slate. "I do not remember their names, and the way they look is just a blurred shadow. I remember parts. Her red hair, how it always was cascading down around her face like a waterfall and glimmering like rubies, sitting perfectly from the moment she rose from the bed. Her eyes, frosty blue crystals, yet deep and endless like looking down into the midst of the ocean."

Kai's inside froze when he realized what the wolf was talking about, and it was only barely that his body was able to continue walking. For the first time he spoke of the family he had lost, proving he had not been left on the streets like Ian. The mystery of the captain of the Blitzkrieg Boys was finally going to be revealed, but to the member who had the least to do with the team. Fearing that there was a bigger meaning with the sudden revelation, the slate did not want to listen. But it was the first time ever the redhead spoke of his family. The first time ever he shared his life.

It would not only be rude to ask him to stop speaking. It would be devastating, and prove that the slate had no right to call himself a friend of the wolf. A thing so vulnerable that not even Spencer or Ian had gotten to now, a thing so secret not even Bryan had found out Tala's past in the archives of the abbey, should not be met with half an ear, uncaringly, unfeelingly. So no matter what the thoughts behind it was, as there had to be some or the redhead would have died without revealing it, Kai forced himself to concentrate.

"The only reason I even remember it is because it is a faded copy that meets me whenever I look into the mirror. The only thing left of him is not really a way he looked… the feeling of him hugging me, his giant belly impossible for me to reach around. So I guess my dad was a 'big' man." The slate could hear the footsteps slowing down, only to fasten again so much that he got up to the slate's side. "What I do remember for sure, though, is how they made me feel. How they were. The safety. Kindness. My father's pride and endless need to protect everyone, especially us. My mother's endless love and devotion to me and my father."

The slate's eyes flickered towards the redhead, and the look on his face was not as monotone as his voice. Pain was written deeply in the frown, as well as around the edges of his mouth. It was surprising for Kai, who normally never saw anything else than smiles and determination showed on the other's face. It stirred something inside his frozen mind, even if the fog of regret and protection was still pushing over him and trying to make him forget and not care.

"They are so faint in my memory. Their murderer, on the other hand, stand clearer in my mind than even you, as you walks here beside me. I remember every movement he made. I remember the sound of the gunshot that made my mother fall. How his gun flew past the room as my father attacked him to protect his family. I cannot even remember my mother's last words, while I so clearly see his face when the mask flew off."

The voice changed slowly from the unchanging tone he had used before, yet Kai was still surprised when he heard the anger, the furious hate, the beastly, venomous, dripping lounging of revenge. Something made him reluctant to turn his head and look at the face of the redhead once again. Even though he wished to do so, to try to read the state of the wolf, he did not dare. There was some kind of threat in the voice, even if it clearly was not directed towards the slate.

A tremble reached the voice of the redhead as he continued the stream of words he never had spoken before. "Even though he dropped his gun, he still had a knife." The dump sound of a blade going through human skin and into a bared stomach reached the slate's inner ear, even though he did not know how the redhead's father had died. "I walked past my mother, who died as I walked, towards his weapon." The most beautiful voice of a woman begged with Russian words for her beloved child to run away and get help, desperation clear as she was obviously dying. "I took it in my hands, but it was too heavy. If I had just…

I ended up as the reason for my father's death. The killer stabbed him in the stomach, and he fell to the floor." What hunted Kai this time was a vision that blurred his mind for a second. A red-haired boy, standing with a gun in his hands, trembling at the weight of the weapon, but though his fingers could not pull the trigger, the murder had already happened in the mind behind the hateful, blue eyes. Kai blinked surprised, and the vision disappeared as though it had never happened. "But he lived, and the wound would not have killed him for many hours. Still, he stayed down. The murderer dragged him into the hall, and closed the door. Had…" The trembling in his voice was sudden after he had seemed stable for so long. When Kai's violet eyes turned towards the other for half a second, he got a glimpse of a face frozen in utter wrath, and the hesitation seemed invisible on him.

"Had I just pulled the trigger, had I even just hit the killer without the wound having been fatal, I know he would have fled instead of taking my father. As soon as I saw what he had done, even before the door smacked, I dropped the gun and ran, unable to pull the god damn trigger as I fucking was." His anger flared again, and Kai could not help but be relieved that he had not looked at the other teen's face. The simple emotions in the voice were strong enough to make him shiver, so he could not even imagine how the rage would look on the slim, fine face.

"You may claim I was too young to have the responsibility. That was what every adult, even Boris in the end, told me when I had settled in the abbey. But I knew, the moment I reached the dead body of my father in the hall, his throat slit and the front door open, that it was me. Do you know how many years it took for me to be able to handle a gun properly?" The question made Kai turn and stare with a surprised expression. Regret had become written in the mix of hate and rage. "About three years. All because of this stupid body.

Some would have been physically able to pull the trigger at the age of four. Only few, though, but all of the ones I know part of the Abbey. Spencer, Bryan, you, even Ian was able at the age of four. Along with many others in that place. That is why they were selected. But I am born with the body of a girl, thin, petite and physically weak, meaning I had to train twice as hard as anyone to even get my fingers strong enough to lift a gun. If I had been born differently, my father would have survived. Why they were interested in me, I still do not understand. I was so _weak_ not even I would have wanted me."

He cannot possibly believe that? That he was the cause? Yet his voice claimed so. He seemed to have thought about it for long… On the other hand, he had had more than a dozen years of silent suffering from the experience to find a proper conclusion. The death of his mother was the killer's fault, he could not blame himself anything else than being too slow. But the death of his father had happened right before his eyes… And he could have stopped it with a single movement that required bending his finger.

Strangely, Kai had a feeling he knew more to the scene that occurred so far back than he knew he could. His eyes flickered again to the wolf again, noticing for the first time that tears flowed down his face. The redhead himself seemed unaware of it. The slate wanted to help, to say something, but his tongue was tied by the damage in his brain.

"I decided revenge." From the words and the tone he had used, it was no surprise. It could seem this revenge was still on his mind, still something he was striving for. At least when the memory came. "The man had destroyed everyone I loved, everyone I knew, and in the place I ended up, no-one cared for anyone. I found my way to survive, and was promised help. By Boris. If I helped him, he would help me. The worst of my deeds was to follow his words, even worse than the pain I brought to everyone I now care for. When I think back, I feel blind. For of course, he did not mean to help me, but… he treated me as though he cared. I never believed he loved me… but did he care?

The only way I could do what I did under Boris was by remembering how my parents died. The only thing which comforted me when the Abbey's hate towards me, from guards, scientist, students, everyone but Boris, became too strong was the thought of how they had once loved me." A voice, desperate, cold _and cringing reached Kai's ears, and he felt a sharp pain in his back as he stared up at the face beneath the red hair of the five-year-old. Tears were in his frozen eyes, and satisfaction filled him, as he saw how his words had better effect than he could have imagined._

"_Shut __up__! I don't care about friends! I don't care about love! You don't know me! You CAN'T judge me! Shut up!" There was a short pause, before everything burst out even stronger than before, and Kai felt himself twitch in fear and surprise when the boy burst. "I DON'T CARE ABOUT LOVE! I _KNOW_NOBODY LOVES ME! Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. I'm NOT WEAK! I'M NOT! I'M _NOT_!"_

It was so clear, even if the slate was sure he had not had any collection of this just a few seconds before.

_"I _KNOW_ NOBODY LOVES ME!"_

Yes, he had definitely known.

He found Tala looked at him surprised. How had the wolf gotten in front of him? That was when Kai realized his feet no longer moved, and he took another step. It seemed his sudden stop had broken the spell of anger and hate from the redhead's mind, and he proved he was back to himself by suddenly being concerned. That redhead was too concerned, but Kai knew from this weird, sudden memory that the redhead had whipped him.

Was this kindness and caring his way of making up for the deeds he had done when he had been under Boris?

The wolf swallowed weakly, as though he expected the worst. "I-I had not planned to tell you…" It seemed he was afraid the things he had told were the reasons for the slate's stop. "I… I got carried away… I am sorry, it was not-"

"Shhh…" Kai did not know what he was going to do or say. But he decided the well-being of his friend was more important than hiding his weakness. He reached out and took the flesh hand on the shoulder of his friend, not knowing what to say but speaking anyway. "It-… Ah, it wasnn't… you-your… words." His tongue felt too thick, his throat too dry and his mouth too watered, and a barrier seemed to hide the words from escaping his brain. Yet the shame was gone. He had to speak. "Ah… j-just remm-memberd… something."

Tala stood with the awe slowly spreading on his face. "You… where is your voice?" The ridiculous words from the redhead managed to slate to smile at his disability, something he had had yet to do. His voice was there still, it was the words that were the problem. That was too many words for him to explain, so he just settled on the description the wolf had used. The smile just seemed to make Tala even more surprised, and even scared. Kai without a voice was like Bryan with feelings. It did not add up with their nature. You had to learn to deal with it.

"Ahh… I l-lost iiit. Allo-ng w-wi-ittfh…" The struggled with the sentence a little while longer, before pointing to the robotic arm. "Prac-practice-wo… w-wound." He swallowed down his dry throat and to get the spit away from his mouth. "N-not… V-Volt-taa-ir."

The wolf nodded, and there was a new flash of concern. Not pity. The wolf did not pity him. What a giant relief. "I did not mean to speak so much… It is better to stay inside my head…" No it is not. The slate shook his head, to tell that he disagreed without wasting time on forming the words. "What I actually wanted to say was…" The leader got back into him, speaking to him as an equal commander. "… that you should not take the path I did. For you, things at least ended for the better. If the two of you had not fought and Voltaire still lived, he would not treat you better, even if he should have given you the reason to think differently. Think of the other times he looked at you with kindness, and how he still put you through hell. I will not claim he did not care for you… he just cared… wrongly."

Anger filled the slate once more, rage reaching to control him and avenge the words towards his grandfather. Luckily, the wolf was not done, and he spoke a little more about the incident. "From what I could gather of the situation in your cell was that the two of you argued, and both of you suddenly went for the kill. You might as well have died as he. If it had not ended in the death of one of you, as I said, it would not necessarily have been different from before his demise. Like I was not fast enough to save my mother, you could not have done differently to protect yourself. If I had succeeded saving my father, I would not know if he ever would recover from losing my mom. He might have killed himself, or treated me like it was my fault, or destroy our lives in another way.

Maybe I was lucky that I ended in the Abbey instead of with my father. And if the two of you both had survived, maybe he would treat you worse than before. Maybe he would see you as a threat and exterminate you. Maybe he would begin to love you like a grandfather should, I do not know. But we both survived, and you need to continue living. Keep track of yourself, unlike what I did, and do not let yourself be covered by hate to everything, as I ended up doing. If you care for your friends and want not to burden your life with more regret, that is."

With that, the redhead turned at continued walking, the dried tears on his face getting wet by new ones. Even if he had said nearly everything, he still did not want to show how much it hurt him. So he continued without looking back at the slate. But his words had reached, and something had been seeded and was beginning to grow. A new resistance, replacing the fog, but this was filled with understanding instead of guilt.

* * *

"What?"

No other word was able to escape his mouth as he sat, staring confusedly at the newly awoken citrine-haired teen. It looked as though the teen in his front was about to panic, but since he had not been awake for long, and the last thing he remembered had to shot twenty times in his stomach, and he was in a freezing forest he did not know, Bryan could hardly blame him. The apatite eyes flew from corner to corner, trying to find something he recognized that could calm him down, while the emerald simply waited for it to pass. How do you calm a panicking person?

After staring at the citrine for another moment, he realized he still had the soup-soaked cloth in his hand, and he threw it at the teen in his front. It hit Brooklyn in his face, and the suddenness of the movement and the fact that he was blinded made the teen freeze. Then he slowly removed the cloth, which still sat on his face, and blinked at the emerald with a displeased frown on his face. Bryan used his silence to ask his question once again. "What?"

The face of the citrine shifted again, and he watched the gray-haired bemusedly. "What what?"

The conversation was utterly ridiculous, and Bryan could not decide if he should be annoyed or amused by the level of intelligence. "You said you were not supposed to be here. Just a few moments ago. What is that supposed to mean?" It looked as though the citrine began understanding, so if they were lucky, the words said from now on was going to be a little more useful and intelligent.

"Boris killed me."

Or not.

"What?"

The citrine sighed. "I was not supposed to wake up again as clear in the head as I am now. I was supposed to lie sick for weeks, while my body slowly gave in to infections and the massive amount of wounds." He swallowed and bit his lower lip, and Bryan thought he could see tears. "The future showed me that I would die a painful death, and if I did not do so, you were going to be captured and tortured back to the state you have been in for many years, and Boris would have killed the nekos who came to help you. Boris would win in the end, with your help."

To Bryan's annoyance, the words would not make sense for him, and he just sat, staring at the citrine. "How? It does not seem to make sense. And why are you crying?" The first tears rolled down the white teen's cheeks, but instead of brushing them away, his one hand went down to his blade and weirdly, the other flew up to his shoulder. Black energy consumed him for a moment, sending shivers down Bryan's spine as he felt a slight pull.

When Brooklyn looked into the eyes of the emerald again, it was as though the pain had never been in him. The eyes were dry of tears, and the normal, lazy smile was back on his face. The sudden change confused him, and Bryan narrowed his eyes. What…? "If I was not there, Boris would not have been distracted from you. He would kill everyone but you, and… Have been done with you by the time the neko-jins came. He would have sedated you, shot the neko-jins to death before they realized the scene and… Well, the rest in easy to imagine."

It only slowly began to make sense, but the thought of it made the gray-haired teen shiver. "I… I guess I owe you thanks…" The thought of Boris and what could have happened made him nauseous, and his stomach twisted in its place. He owed a better thank you, but he did not know how to say it. "But could you not just have saved yourself? There is no-one in the group who you care about, or who really cares about you." Way to pack it in.

The citrine took it well, on the other hand. He simply shrugged, looking as though it did not matter. "I have a few who I care about. Garland, for example. Tyson. Tala, also, even if it is not that much. And you." That was about the last thing the emerald expected, and he felt his eyes widen and something inside him warmth. It was a feeling he did not really know, and he was not that sure he had even felt it before. Yet the simple, two words from the citrine spread a heat across his chest, through the heart, through the stomach, and from those points it spread to come into his arm and legs, all the way to the fingertips and toes. The cold air did not bother his naked upper body just as much, and his wound suddenly felt less hurtful.

Brooklyn was not done, and the place from where he spoke seemed further away than just the few feet in his front beside their fire. "I know that good and evil is not as contrasting and simple as black and white. They come in different shapes and forms, always with also the other in it, even if it is only a little fish of goodness in a sea of evil. These actions that have been done by our enemy might just be the end of humanity or destruction of this world, so even if I normally do not pick sides, I felt a need of acting. I do not care about humans – there are too much evil in every one of them. But I love nature and the world. I was not only saving you by my sacrifice. I was saving the only thing I hold very, very dear." There was a short pause. "Besides, faith is against me. I am going to die no matter what I do."

Even if it seemed like things Bryan could not understand, he nodded slowly, still filled with the weird warmth. No questions had come to his head, needing to be answered. He understood, even if he knew not how. Suddenly, his stomach growled at him, begging him for food, and it brought him back to reality. He set his brilliantly green eyes on the citrine and asked: "Are you hungry?" The needs of the other came before the needs of him, and when the white teen in his front nodded dazedly, he lifted the cooled stone-half and lifted it towards Brooklyn.

The citrine sent a pleading look down to his stomach before taking a sip directly from the bowl. A thoughtful look spread across his fine features, as though he did not know what to think of the taste, then he took it to his lips again and swallowed about a fourth of their liquid food. His pale skin slowly got a mix of gray and green as he ate. Still he gave the bowl to the gray-haired without seeming to care for what could only be nausea.

Bryan was nearly done with his half of the food when he saw the citrine's body cramp up. He stopped the flow of food, set it down and nearly flung it over when he jumped forward to help the other teen. There was nothing he could do but stare with one hand on the other's shoulder as Brooklyn turned away and threw up the food he had just swallowed. Among the contents of the meat, roots and berries were a thick, blackish liquid and some green-yellow, gooey mass. Brooklyn continued to cough while the emerald watched the two unwelcomed substances thoughtfully.

"You are sick," he stated, even if he was not certain what the two weird masses in the vomit. He got no answer, since the citrine's slim body was still shaking under the violent coughing, and a little more of the blackish liquid showed between the fingers of the hand he used to cover his mouth. "That has to be blood, and for it to be black, it must be very old." The conclusion made him realize all his efforts were in vain. The other was bleeding on the inside… or at least he had been. From when Boris shot him, it had to be. Then he should have died already.

When the coughs finally subsided, Brooklyn dried his watery eyes and looked at the vomit. "You are right." Then his eyes turned longingly towards the bowl of food. "But… I am still hungry." The risk that he would throw up if his stomach felt food again was big. It could not be healthy or good for him, especially not when he ended up coughing.

The emerald still reached for the hollowed stone and took it towards the other. "Drink the water, and try not to get anything solid down your throat." He had to get something, or he would definitely die. The citrine just nodded and did as told, his whole body shivering after the strain of the coughs. As soon as he was done and only a little bit of water was let, Bryan took it again and finally satisfied his stomach. Then, he sent a sharp look at the citrine. "Will you die?"

The citrine stood slowly, and looked mildly amused by the question. "Everyone dies." Bryan snorted, annoyed at the jump away from the subject. "Let us get going. I know the way to the biggest camp of our… 'friends', but they will move out soon." Brooklyn stretched his legs as though he had been sitting in the same position for ages, his wounded hip silently screaming at his movements.

The emerald did not argue at the statement, as he wanted to find Tala as fast as possible if the slate had succeeded getting him to safety. But he was still persistent in wanting to get his question answered. "_When_ are you going to die?" he asked this time, trying to cover up the slip that made it possible for the other to avoid the answer. If one knew anything about the future, it had to be Brooklyn.

The white one sighed, as though he was about to tell a grim, embarrassing secret. "Let us just keep walking." He seemed to sense the argue from the emerald even if he had his back to the other. "I will explain on the way. It is kind of confusing. I do not understand it myself…" With a nod Bryan walked up beside the other, and they strode through the undergrowth and dodged low branches, in silence at the beginning. Bryan was about to get bored as he tried to cover the limp of his right leg.

With another sigh, the citrine opened his mouth. "I cannot see the future," he said curtly, making the emerald stop.

"So you-?" the emerald say, for a moment nearly bursting with anger.

"I did not lie to you, no, I said it wrongly." The citrine suddenly looked distressed. "Time is not flowing as it used to at the moment. I could feel it the moment I realized I was not dead, like I should be. I can see the next second in a glimpse, if I am lucky, but it is no flowing. One rule of time I have always stuck to is that time always moves forward, towards the next happening." Now the hard part came.

The citrine took a deep breath, while Bryan stepped up beside him once again. A glance told him a new barrel of vomit was on its way, as the citrine's skin clearly was paling and changing color. Brooklyn himself, though, did not even seem to notice. "It is as though time is now moving… Sideways. I am not even sure if it is the future I get glimpses of, when it is further away than a few second. In what I think is a month time forward, you, Tala, Ian and your blonde teammate is going to walk through some woods in a frozen forest at the ages you are now – but the blonde one died, did he not?"

A glimmer of hope to see the blonde again, that he might be alive, filled Bryan. Then, he remembered the fatal day when they all had woken up with a deadly headache. The sight of the blonde giant, laying and cramping in a pool of his own blood. "Yes," the emerald sad dryly. "He must be dead." The next second, finally released from the memory, the question the citrine had prayed not having to answer came. "What do you mean be going sideways?"

"Like… Like if you are chasing something on a path, but it suddenly turns to the side and there is a wall in front of you, even I you _know_ the something went straight ahead," Brooklyn tried to explain. "Like if you sail on a river for the hundredth time, and it suddenly turns and lead you up a hillside instead of going straight as it did all the other times you travelled it." He threw his hands to the sides, as though he was giving up. "I cannot explain it, and I do not understand it. Something… godly has or will redirect the flow of time, placing the wall in my face and leading the water up a hill. It is… unnatural and… and…"

He could find no more words to describe it and just let the hands fall while shaking his head sadly. The silence spread between them, letting the emerald ponder over the information he had received. Even if he citrine was right to assume that he would not understand it, it did not stop him from trying. But when not even the master of the future could decipher the happenings, how should he?

The sun had moved even more the next time any of them spoke, standing just above the shortest trees. It was when the other had to stop to vomit once more. The words came from the emerald simply to make sure he had understood everything. "So you can no longer see the future because… something big is coming or has come?" He got a nod for his answer, and silence filled the air around them once more. "You do not know what it is?" The other shook his head. As if the answers of those questions were all he had needed, he nodded satisfied. "So lastly… Do you think you are going to die soon?" If he threw up blood, it meant somewhere from his stomach to his mouth, he had been bleeding. He had lived until now, but… he could not even keep the liquid he drank.

"I will not recover from my wounds." The dullness of his tone made the emerald try to catch his eyes, but he kept staring at the ground while he wiped the sick off his cheeks. "I am not certain, I admit. I just cannot feel the wounds in my body, even if I know they are there. I feel no pain, I am even hungry, but I know they have yet to recover. And not to mention, death smells like it has been lingering with me for a while. I think I already should be going 'on'."

As soon as his words stopped in their flow, he turned and continued walking, as though every step brought him further away from the end he knew he was heading for. Another thing came to Bryan's mind as he thought back to the day the citrine had gotten his fatal wounds, while avoiding hurting details. His whole body became cold as his thought reached it. "You said something about my mom." He remembered the exact words, but for some reason, the details were foggy. As if something in him tried to keep it from the surface.

"Your mother forgives you for killing her if you forgive her for not being able to protect you." The words were repeated in the same tone as the first time they were spoken, clear and focused even if the citrine himself seemed to be in an unfocused state. They continued walking, making the emerald wonder how far there was yet for them to reach the camp. Another thing seemed more important, though.

"How did you know? You do not see the past, do you?" His mother had been dead for… he did not know how long, yet the citrine claimed he knew her, had some kind of ancient message from her. Brooklyn shook his head with the lazy smile back on his face. The emerald could not imagine that he would prefer the other seeing the past to the truth.

"I see the dead. If I could see the past as well as the future, I would definitely go insane." The fact that he was already considered at least a little insane by most of those he knew did not seem to bother him. "She had been watching you nearly ever since you killed her, she told me. As soon as the horror of being shot by you had left her spirit, she sought you out to ask why. It was then, she told me, she realized how much you had been through, and as many spirits normally do, she blamed herself. Because she chose the husband she did, you could go out of the house the day you disappeared."

Shivers ran all over his body, and he felt an ache in his chest, right where his heart was. It felt as if something tried to stop it from beating, and therefore created his pain. There was a sting behind his eyes, meaning tears were forming. He had never before cried solely for his mother, really meaning it, understanding what person he had shot, but now he did. He did not know what caused these emotions now, these emotions he had never felt before. They were so deep, so intense, that he felt he would go on a rampage again, but while they were so strong… They were quiet, too. He felt like the feelings had filled him beyond the point he could bear. But there was not the normal heat in them that made him crack and become wild.

"She is watching us now." The emerald followed the gaze of the citrine. His green eyes fell on the cold, thin air of the forest, and for the first time in years, he felt that special, caring love surround him. Though she was not visible, not real, he knew their eyes had connected. "She came because you finally are feeling the loss. She is crying, but smiling still." He did not have to tell this. Bryan knew. She loved him, despite what he had done, despite what he had been, despite everything. She did not hate him for being a machine, for being inhuman. For once, someone did not judge him.

The tears still fell from his eyes as he stared into the air, his eyes focused on something not even he could see. The citrine continued a little further, before he stepped into a small clearing. The sun was setting, and a group of people was choking a fire. No-one noticed him before he forced them to. "Hello," he near yelled, causing the people to see him. On guard instantly, they held their weapons, and it seemed all the neko-jin's were assembled along with a few of the human teens. At least Brooklyn could make out the adult nekos' swords.

When they saw who it was, though, the tenseness disappeared. He got a small pat on his shoulder from one of the teens he knew was Garland, they were all about to let him be, knowing his teammate would take care of him. The adults got new thoughts when the citrine continued. "Bryan is a little further back. He got… distracted by something a little while ago." Knowing the delicate situation of the unstable teen, the adults chose to fetch him, to make sure he would be good and that they could control him. None of the people in the camp were what they considered his friends. Neither Ian nor Tala were there.

Further behind, Bryan was still staring; the tears rolling down his cheeks slowly got a whole waterfall. Did Brooklyn call this feeling… loss? He opened his mouth, the sobs forming in his stomach and trying to get past his throat. "I-" he began, only to finally burst the way a normal person would. Instead of going into a fit of violence, he fell to his knees, not even feeling the pain in his hip, and got into a fit of sobs and tears. "I forgive you, мама."

The adults reached him just a second later, and froze. This was about the last thing they expected to see, and for a moment, none of them moved. Finally, the same that had looked out for him in the darkness of the underground moved forward and fell to the ground beside the teen, carefully taking an arm on to Bryan's strong shoulder to make sure the other would not be offended by this action of care.

To everyone's surprise, the moment he felt someone showing kindness, he leaned in and cried on into the shirt of the man. Like the little boy he had been before ending in the Abbey, he reached for the shirt of the man and buried his face in it. Though surprised, the man holding him let his arms fold around the teen in a light hug, stroking the hair and back like a loving father. Last time he had offered concern, he had been flatly rejected.

The other let the two be alone, walking away as soon as they were certain the teen was not going to taking his hand around their companion's throat and kill him. Only one man remained, though making sure he was hidden. It was the scientist, who had been lucky enough to find the neko-jin adults and stay with them.

While Bryan felt the parentally care that only adults can provide for the first time since his disappearance at the age of four, Brooklyn was walking side by side with Garland, the material artist looking very relieved to find his last teammate alive and quite well. A sudden dizziness overcame the white one of the two, and he suddenly had to lean towards the other in attempt of staying on his feet. Intense pain spread from his stomach, and he gasped as the pain he had not felt before intensified with the speed of light.

His eyes were unfocused as he tried to find his balance, but a sudden realization made them clear. Garland stared on the verge of tears, fearing the next step in the other's path of life. His fear only got worse as he watched the other turn his head to his other shoulder, staring upwards on something or someone hidden to the eyes of the rest of the world. The material artist could only support the other with his body, as a faint glow of darkness began to radiate from the other, and in a faint, white glow, a weak illusion of snowy wings seemed to grow out of the others back.

Brooklyn stared up at the nothingness, the clearness in his eyes even more scary than anything else. Even when the citrine felt normal, his eyes seemed foggy, the laziness and carefree thoughts making the rest of the world seem unimportant. He pushed himself off, so his teammate no longer supported his weight. "I get it now, Your Majesty," he said, his words weak from pain, dizziness and nausea. "That is why you woke me."

He stood a little longer, swaying as the glow intensified. Then, the blue eyes turned backwards in their sockets, and his eyes was halfway closed, his face peaceful as he fell backwards. Before Garland could do it, invisible hands carefully grabbed the limp body, lifted his feet and gently set him on the ground. Something made his eyes close fully. Another thing folded his hands in his front, as though he lied in a coffin.

Garland fell to his knees and touched the white fabric, the tears now falling. His last teammate was dead, right in front of his eyes, and though it all seemed so magical, he could not feel surprised. The powers Brooklyn had in life could only give a magnificent death.

The dark energy that had been flowing around him began to come together, settling in the pocket that had to be the place the black blade was laying. An explosion flung the bluenette backwards as a ray of black energy flew up to the sky, and a loud crack from the pocket told that the blade had split in two equally sized halves. When he was once again able to look around, he stared up into the sky were what seemed to be a black hole had formed, and he thought he could see green eyes that was a mix of malice and grave sadness stare down at the dead citrine.

Then, in another ray of black light, the black hole disappeared underneath the clouds, heading south in the ancient beast's search for a new, special carrier. The explosion he had used to depart had flung everyone in the clearing backwards and blown out the fire. The only things unmoved by his powers were the shelters they had built. And, of course, the still body of his former owner.

* * *

Once again, sorry for the lateness. Now, I have to attend a party for my nephew, who is a little over a half year old. I have looked the chapter through and think I caught most of the mistakes, but since it is not long ago that I finished, I am unable to find them all.

With that done and over with, I can only say: Enjoy in joy ^^


	28. Attempt to kill

You know, most of this chapter has been written in my school, in and out of lessons. I am quite bored, as the things we are 'learning' in my new school I already know. For some months past, I made a lot of one-shots for at competition with the team called Remedy Darkness, after having been asked by the lovely GatewaysDiary (or just Gatie xP). Anyway, when that was done, I began getting restless again, as my depression worsened just slightly again. It was not bad, but I had a hard time writing anymore than two lines a day… And I met the wonderfulness called Hetalia… So… I'm FUCKING LATE!

Warning: Death, murder-attempts and such things.

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade of any of its characters. I own OCs in the story, as well as the plot, but I do not profit from anything I write (yet).

* * *

Attempt to kill

* * *

The tip of his nose carried a drop of liquid which had frozen in the time they had wandered the forest. The skin on the nose itself was red and raw after the harsh cold. The redness of his cheeks, forehead and throat, on the other hand, was of another kind, and in the cold of the surroundings, it could absolutely not be healthy. He was hot in this cold.

That was the reason Kai began to realize his savior was not as fitted to save him as he had thought. In the beginning, it had looked nearly normal. But he was sweating, just slightly, and his eyes were glazed over. He was sick, again. But like the other times he had noticed one of his friend's weaknesses, he kept quiet to let the redhead follow the two, important rules; do not show weakness, and keep your problems to yourself.

Though keeping the vow of silence, still he let himself worry. His eyes continued to wander by the other's side, carrying a look he begged the wolf not to see. Years ago, he would have been able to walk by the side of the redhead without those wandering eyes, only having doubt and disdain in spare for the weakness of the hateful older teen. Years, which was not even that far away.

They trotted through the snow, the cold in the air trying to grip the slate as well as his companion, but Kai had never been prone to freeze, and though it cooled his skin and caused him to shiver slightly, he was not bothered by it through a snorting nose or numb limps. The silence had been between them since the conversation, the stars leading their way with few clouds making hollow parts in the skies where light was no longer.

They did not know where they were going; only that it was away from the person they hated. The snow was deep, going past their ankles and soaking their ragged shoes and socks with icy, newly melted water. The moon was reaching the top of the sky when Kai noticed the slight limp of a hip that had walked too much on his companion, a hip that had been overworked after long time of stillness. It reminded the slate that his friend only just had awoken after a lying in bed, and still having the wound he himself had inflicted. Tala was in pain, and the fact that the slate could see it meant it was bad.

Taking a deep breath and thinking while he was still walking, he knew they needed a break. They had walked since moonrise without having eaten a descent meal. Also he had a slight ache in parts of his body, though he was sure it was not close to the amount the wolf had to be feeling. For that reason, he hummed loudly to catch the attention of his companion, and then sat on a fallen tree covered in snow.

Tala had turned to him, and though the darkness kept it hidden, his eyebrows rose. For what reason did the other stop so suddenly? "We should keep moving," the redhead said, a hint of annoyance hidden in his voice. Kai ignored him, concentrating of loosening his shoulders and moving his frozen toes to keep warm and relaxed at the same time. "Kai, if your hearing truly had been damaged by the incident that took away your speech, I am very sure I would have noticed," he continued dryly, and the slate had to fight back the smile.

It took a total of ten minutes of the wolf pacing back and forth and a few hundreds of multi-languaged curses before the redhead surrendered and sat down beside the phoenix. "You are an annoying dick, you know that? And the worst part of it is that for once, you have a reason to keep quiet, so I do not even have the full right to want to rip your head off because of your stupid silence."

He would not even sigh to admit it, but as he took his seat he gave up the battle that had not even been fought. He was still certain that every minute they sat here, the more they were at risk, yet when he bent his hip and relaxed, the stinging pain of his stab-wound subsided slightly, and he felt more able to breathe. Even the dizziness, the sickly heat in his body, found rest for a time. It was then he realized the truth of Kai's actions, and was staggered and, for some weird reason, annoyed that the younger teen would dare to notice and help him through his weakness. Even if he would always help his friends through theirs.

It took another ten minutes before they both realized how tired and drained they felt. One just awoken from sickness, the other only just recovered from an enormous amount of emotional stress, they both had been driven by nothing but their stubbornness and will to survive. Now that the enemy no longer seemed to breathe in their necks, they had to fight the dreams of a warm, comfy bed to make sure they did not fall asleep in this cold.

A mechanical noise sounded when Kai sent his robotic arm through his matted, dirty hair. At his side, the redhead stared at the ground, his blue eyes shimmering over their footsteps in the fallen snow. The flakes of white had been coming on and off along with the clouds, drifting from the sky like the feathers of a dove, and that was the only reason none of them thought of covering their tracks. It would either happen when new snow fell, or the wind would blow specks of white crystals to fill up the holes from their boots.

"…Alright?" the slate asked, his voice only halting a minute. His disability was only present as his shortage of words, as if he was trying to delude the redhead to forget about the shock and believe that it still was the Kai that he knew sitting beside him. Tala, though, was neither going to be tricked or to accept the care being showed by the slate. As such, he turned away and settled his legs on the other side of the fallen tree, making them face two different directions.

"When was I not?" he asked, his words spitting. Of course he was alright. Better now, when they were no longer moving, but as long as he was able to move, he would label himself alright. Besides, he deserved the care of no-one, so this care, even from the one and only Kai, was so misplaced that he could not handle it.

The darkness, as well as Tala's new position, made it impossible to see the twitch of the slate's lips as the redhead moved away in a slight, childish rebellion. His eyes reached for the stars again, watched a cloud bigger and thicker than the rest drift past lazily, a giant shadow sneaking over them. He shivered, but could not find the reason for it, as the cold felt as though it was flowing away from him.

The wounded eye, he found, was of little help. It blurred even the part of his vision that was supposed to be clear. For that reason he closed it and stared up at the shadow above them with a single violet eye. As it drifted on, he realized the first part had the shape of a head, long hair parting at its top and flow down towards the rest of the cloud.

A wind was picking up its speed, rolling past the two teens and making them shake and freeze. It whipped at the naked arms of the trees around them, an eerie feeling filling both as one stared at the whiteness of the earth, and the other at the darkness of the sky. The cloud seemed to come closer, or grow, like the head was moving, and broad shoulders passed the brink of the narrow treetops, giving form to a robust body.

Kai was sure he saw its head move, and the growing arms of the figure falling towards him. His metal-hand felt the tension of his living body, and it curled into a ball without his order. He found himself clenching his jaw for no reason. He did not even notice as the redhead beside him moved away from their seat, or that the wind was growing stronger or wilder as seconds passed.

The shadow so far beyond them continued its growing, an arm, he was sure, turning towards him and reaching a finger towards him, pointing at the two humans. The winds forming the clouds made its head thinn suddenly, and a cry split the night as two stars penetrated the layer of dampened water, and the glowing, shining, disappointed eyes of Voltaire stared him down with that pointing finger.

Kai stirred, his whole body tensing up, and he fell backwards into the snow they had not stepped in. He could not even move to sit up, watching as the cloud above reached past the stars and the hand with the pointing finger separated from the rest of the shadow, showing itself as nothing more than another cloud passing through lower air. Still, the rest of the body, the head and the shoulders, seemed oh, so dangerously familiar.

A new shadow cast over him, covering the one in the sky. But though this had a face too, the hair was not long, flowing and cloudy-gray, but a fiery red. "Know what I found?" he asked, and somewhere in his consciousness Kai remembered the cry he had heard as he fell to the cold forest floor. The pure joy in the voice of the redhead told him the cry had source in the fevered throat, and that it was the cry of happiness.

The wolf left no room for answers, knowing he would not get a full one. "Footprints," he told, dragging the slate to his feet without the other even asking for it. "I'm sorry if I startled you. Come and see! I have found footprints."

"A-animal?" the slate asked, his mouth watering at the thought of even raw deer-meat. He did not get an answer of words, was simply dragged to a place ten feet away from their fallen tree. The redhead pulled him to a stop and pointed. Through the darkness and flaring crystals carried with the wind the only thing he saw was hundreds of tiny hills of snow shadowing hundreds of small valleys of even more snow. It could just be a rocking ground underneath, and he looked at the redhead with uncertainty. "Sh-sure?"

He could not see the wolf's rolling eyes, but he felt it all the same, and filled with doubt, he squatted down to come closer to the small disfigurement of the ground before him. "I know my snow," he heard the redhead say, in a tone that told Kai he was offended. The slate chose not to care, though he found himself less and less doubtful about the other's claim the longer he watched the tops and bottoms of the white layer before him and studied the snow around the weird, uneven snow.

The longer he looked, the more he felt he noticed patterns through the darkness. All of the valleys were stretching from the place they had been formed towards where the two humans were heading, as though someone had created a frozen river flowing through the trees, away from their enemy. They also seemed to follow in pairs, though that was harder to determine. Deciding to destroy his uncertainty, he pulled his human hand into one of the valleys and further into the snow underneath.

The cold felt like ice, nearly paralyzing his fingers. He felt what he needed, though, a hard surface, and tried to grab it. He succeeded, and up from the small valley, in between his fingers, came a skin of solid, hard-pressed snow.

Weight had been set there. Shivers much like the one he had felt when staring at the cloud formed overhead rolled down his spine, and his eyes darted upwards, surveying the veil above them, slowly hiding the stars. Though getting more and more deformed, he could still see the dead man up there, and the face was still held towards him. The man's murderer. The winds blew at his hair and caressed the colors that proved his relations to the man he had only just killed.

He stood. There were two chances and two choices. "E-e-nemies?" His eyes were set upon the ground again, trying to make it reveal its secrets to him. It was not easy for him to decipher the hills and bottoms to actual footprints, and though he could see where they were heading, nothing seemed to reveal to him if they should follow or flee their discovery. But Tala knew.

The one heated with fever broke off a branch on a young tree, and swinging it like a sword he pointed it towards the ground. It stopped right above the bottom of one of the valleys, his smile wide. "There is your answer," he said, and the violet eyes of the slate dove down again. The wind tore at them, blowing the light, newly fallen crystals up as if trying to hide the possible lightening of their burdens. This valley was smaller than the others. No guard would have so small feet. But it was still bigger than the children they had gathered from the desert, which meant it had to be… "Ian."

The voice of the wolf was so happy telling him this that Kai's lips could not help but twitch for the hundredth time in their nightly journey. The tiny valley was the size of the small teen's army-boot. They did not have to speak to each other to know. Had Ian been caught by enemies and was able to walk on his own, the little guy would toss and turn and fight so wildly that the prints in front of them would be unpatterned and his flailing boots would make the snow seem like it had been attacked by a whirlwind. This snow had no signs of struggle, only wandering.

"Of course," Tala continued, his blue eyes still sparkling and the mouth still smiling through the light of the moon, "we must be certain that we have not come to the wrong conclusions based on what we expected. It is only a half-covered footprint in the snow that might resemble to the size of Ian's boot." At least his bliss of maybe finding someone important to him did not destroy his common sense, but his eyes still held a sudden clearness that the slate had been missing from the captain of the Blitzkrieg Boys. Kai watched him through half-lidded eyes, the wind blowing the crystals on top of the heavier snow between them, trying to get their tiny edges to cut his eyeballs.

He closed his eyes and turned away, towards the place the supposed-to-be footprints were heading. As they had thought with their own tracks, the wind began to cover the holes with the lighter snow. They had to hurry, if they hoped to find this supposed-to-be-allied group before they had to dig for every sign of tracks.

Besides, Kai thought fearfully, Tala's new, joyful smile might cover for his worsening condition.

The horizon of the east began to redden, first becoming light blue, then a fiery rose. The ghostly sky above them was travelling towards the light, like the two of them. They heard the noise of a living human just when the trail became so faint they would be forced to come to a stop. The heavy breathing of a man caught up to them, and Kai suddenly felt very stupid for not covering their tracks if they were reaching an enemy. Luckily, the branch of a spruce was nearly just over their head, and with the use of the robotic arm, he got up with ease.

Then he reached down to the redhead. Tala looked at the metal-arm with slight contempt, but grabbed it nonetheless, and he was pulled to safety too. It was done with more noise than Kai would have wanted, yet it seemed possible that the man's own breathing covered for their nearly soundless climb. Needles from the tree fell to the ground, nearly covering their footprints, but also showing that something unusual had happened to the poor tree they were mounting for safety.

Just to be sure, they went to a branch further up, just to make certain they were not seen from the ground. Kai sat furthest from the trunk of the tree, lying on his stomach to see as far through the narrow holes between the dark green branches as possible, while Tala sat with a hand on the trunk, surveying the landscape over the back his friend. The tree seemed to bow under the weight of the wind, despite the thickness of its trunk.

Kai nearly felt the bush beside their footprints part. The shape of a man stood still, his size about Kai's and Tala's combined. He tried to sit more comfortably, as it was his bad eye that had the best view to the stranger. A twig broke underneath his hand, but he was able to grab a hold on it before it fell. The man, whoever he was, stared down at their tracks and the dark needles with confusion. Then, he looked up.

The sight made Kai freeze. He knew any movement might reveal him, while the heavy, dark branches covered him in shadows.

For far too long the man stood still, staring up at them without seeing. He had to be the man on the watch, and Kai tried to recognize him through the narrow holes where the white snow shined through. Numbness filled his one leg, telling him that he had been sitting wrongly on the branch, but he dared not move. Finally, the man looked down to examine the footprints that seemed to stop so suddenly. Kai closed his eyes in relief and shifted on the rough surface.

And dropped the twig he had broken off earlier by doing so.

It landed on the man's shoulder, making him twitch and turn upwards again. Kai slowly turned to Tala, and met a weary and troubled look from the other teen, his friend tense with wariness. "I know you are up there," the man told, and the redhead opened his mouth.

"Maxi-" In a glimpse, the slate had a hand over his mouth, but the movement from the edge of the branch to the trunk made new needles fall. The slate was still uncertain of how much they could trust the former guards, even though he had been trying to prove different. He felt the redhead nod beneath his hand, and he let him go, steadying himself on the branch once again.

They heard a gun getting loaded, and behind him, Tala gritted his teeth. "Come down now, or I _will_ shoot." Tala showed him his hand, signing for them to move. He held up three fingers. "I will count down now," the voice warned, and with the waking sun behind their backs. "Three." Two fingers. "Tw-" One finger. "-o." Zero fingers. "On-"

Kai leapt down, caring not for the distance to the ground. The already howling wind howled in his ears, the old branches and small twigs swiped at his living arm, legs and face. It did not matter. Since he knew he was going precisely towards the former soldier, it did not matter. Somewhere behind and above him, Tala was on his way, his moves fitting so well with his own it was as though they read each other's minds.

He hit something hard before he had thought, but still was able to time his move. Maxim was right-handed, so while they fell with each other, his pushed outwards from his opponent's left to the right, flinging the gun out of his hand. Tala grabbed it and landed gracefully on his feet, pointing it towards the man. The slate fought to keep above, the soldier strong enough to lift him, but in a too awkward position to do so. Instead, he then tried to roll the teen over.

"Stop moving," Tala commanded, and glancing to the gun, the soldier grimaced and did so. "That was not really graceful, Kai, but definitely effective." His smile was amusingly crooked, and Kai _was_ able to see the fun of it. He noticed a sudden pain on his forehead, and wiped at it, seeing a little blood. One of the many branches had made a small cut, nothing but a scrape. Probably just one of many bruises the tree had put upon him. "We decided you might have turned sides again, so we wanted to restrain you."

"You are very suspicious for your age, though I cannot blame you." His eyes turned to Kai again, then the robot-arm, and nodded to himself. "Stupid you are not, though." Anger was hidden in his voice, yet regret hid just underneath the heated feeling. It had to be the hundredth time the slate noticed it, but he could not truly forgive the man, a knot of anger in his stomach. His doings _had_ cost him his arm and voice, after all. "So, tell me how I am supposed to prove myself?"

Kai took a breath to try and talk, despite his lack of words. He did not get the chance, though. A sudden sound along with a swift movement, and he felt the barrel of a shotgun pointed to his head. His robotic hand reacted before his brain, suddenly gripping the metal and pointing it away. Then he sent a killer-look towards the carrier, only to meet a pair of recognizable, crimson eyes. They stared at each other in bafflement, until Tala joyfully came flying across the plain, arms wide, and pushed the newcomer – along with himself – into the snow, gun, sickness and tiredness forgotten.

"Iaaaan!"

* * *

Only one thing came to mind when you looked towards the heavens. A storm was coming. This did not make the camp stop getting ready to move again, even if the winds tore at the tents and tarpaulins trying to get packed, blowing them like flags in the hands of men. It was a hard job, required patience, and, most of all, strength.

A night's sleep beside the weird neko-jin-man had helped Bryan get past the sadness of having met his mother from beyond, as well as heat up the body he had uncaringly disposed to the cold. Now, as he helped the neko's tear down the tents, his mind had only to concentrate on the queer happenings to the dead citrine teen. It confused him, how the death had been so sudden, and even worse were the things he had told while they had been alone.

Something big was coming; so big that even time would be turned around. Two different timelines travelling side by side, this had been what the citrine had tried to warn him about. The laws of physics getting defied. It was so wrong, so weird in his mind, that he nearly could not believe it. And still the many occurrences and many things that Brooklyn had predicted or known made it hard to believe that he could have such a great thing wrong.

His thoughts were thought alone, though, the experience unshared with the rest of the camp. Had Tala been here, it would have been different, and Ian as well. Spencer would have been the best choice, the one who was most skeptic about supernatural events, and therefore the one who would have come with arguments to force the emerald to rethink and reconsider, but he was a possibility no more.

Bryan stopped moving for a moment, a thoughtful look on his face. It had been so long since he had even thought of Spence. Part of the reason probably lied in the state of mind he had been in, the emotionless and robotic mind, last time the giant had lived. Suddenly, after this whole while, he experienced to miss the big guy. It was a weird feeling, melancholic, yet light. It did not have the heat of anger, nor was it dark like sadness, and though it was light as a feather, it weighed his heart down and created a small hole where it should have been.

He shook his head, shaking it off like a heavy cloak, and let go of the fabric when the neko in front of him signed for it. Then he turned away, caring not for the next steps of packing, and surveyed the camp for things they could do more. His vision was a blur of flying snowflakes, the wind having picked up something during the night. It was good. They could not cover their tracks, but if the snow got turned around, the tracks would disappear for them. Even the fireplaces they had dared to make would not be shown through the white layer.

It satisfied him, and he turned back to see how well it went for the rest. The neko-jin who he had shared tent with the night and cried against last afternoon came up to stand beside him, smiling through the cold wind. Bryan simply watched him, no movement in his face. It did not surprise the adult. It hurt him, but it did not surprise him. He had hoped he had broken through to the boy, gotten his trust as a friend instead of an outsider, but it seemed he was not accepted just because they had shared tent and he had patted the other's shaking back.

"When are we ready to move?" the emerald finally broke the silence. The neko let his eyes float over the camp, his long hair whipping at his face. Then he set his eyes upon the greens again, finding them unmoving. In the beginning, when he saw the boy for the first time, no emotions had been found behind those green stone, but now he saw a mix of impatience and longing. The first time he had seen into them, he had been filled with disgust and fear. Now all he felt was relief and peace, thinking of the younger one's progress.

He knew where that hidden lounging came from, and he knew exactly what it meant. "Be at ease," the neko said, fighting the urge to stroke the teen's face to settle the movements in the overworking, young mind. So he decided only to lay a hand on his shoulder. "We will find your captain." The first real movement on the emerald's face came at his last word. A painful, sudden twitch of worry around the green eyes. "We are nearly moving out now. The only thing left to do is dividing the loads equally among those strong enough to carry them."

Bryan nodded, moved to the nearest bundle of bound and pressed fabric and flung it over his shoulder. It did not weigh much, and he considered taking another bundle before deciding against overloading himself. First of all, he was among people he did not really know if he trusted and he might have to be cautious and ready to react. Second of all, he did not know how far they were thinking of walking, and he did not feel like risking to tire his body any further than absolutely necessary after the torturing cold he had put it through the night before.

Then another thought reached him, and he moved his face back to the neko-jin. "What is your name?"

The man was taken aback by the question, and he nearly could not answer. "Ehm… Baojia… You can just call me Bao if you would like." A smile crept unto the adult's face, feeling like the gray-haired teen just had given him a compliment. Which he kind of had, since the man meant so much to the teen that his name actually was worth his time.

A simple nod was the only answer he got before the teen turned away, walking after the first few people who continued their cold journey, the load he had decided to carry weighing his shoulder down. It was not that he was eager to get going, for it was not certain that his captain was that way, but he feared the intimacy he was experiencing with that weird, close-to-human being. Bao… Wonder what it meant?

Asian names always had meanings…

The rest of the travelers were soon to follow, Garland joining Bryan in an attempt of keeping the other company – as well as keeping away from people that he knew would send him looks of pity for having lost his last teammate and being near friendless in this deserted world. He was sad, filled with what felt like an endless grieve, but the only thing he wanted was to be treated like he was still capable of doing things despite being alone and seeing his world fall apart again.

While the adult neko-jins were trying to act normally towards him, this 'normal' was not fulfilled and they tried to shelter him from loads and work. The teenagers in the camp could not understand, despite everything they had been through, and even if everyone knew that he had lost what was like a family to him, his peers acted like the mysterious citrine, the bluenette girl and the blond athlete had never even existed.

He knew that Bryan was different. A part of that was his general lack of care for anything other than his own life and own troubles, which of course meant troubles of his team and friends. The other part was that losing was part of his life, and even if he had not been… well, sane most of the time he experienced people losing or getting lost, he knew that continuing life like it had been and being treated normally was what helped the person the most.

…

And his lack of experience in awkwardness helped a lot, too.

This was why the light haired bluenette sought the company of one he, in all honesty, still was not sure how much he liked. And one who he could not be certain how well liked him in return. It seemed the emerald did not care for company, but that was better than a plain rejection, so Garland did not complain.

The wind howled around them, their ears slowly getting numb in the cold, but they were still able to see those in their front and following those behind and beside them. There was no order, except following those who followed those who were in the front of the column. That was until they had walked for what felt like an hour.

Then a shadow approached from the front, through the heavy snowfall as nothing but a gray silhouette among the other gray silhouettes, except that it was moving towards them, growing bigger and getting closer. Garland noticed a change in the emerald's atmosphere and his way of walking. He body seemed to shrink while his stance became more stiff and more straight, like a soldier about to be inspected by a superior.

The man on his way to them was the scientist. He smiled, the smile wide and clear, but the area around his eyes were not wrinkled to compliment the broadened lips. Something seemed off, and the material artist got into a sudden bad mood, but he could not decide what he felt pressured by. "Can I talk to Bryan?" he asked, and when Garland shrugged but stayed, he motioned him off. "_Alone_?" Shrugging again and moving towards the group of adult neko-jins, Garland left them.

The scientist held Bryan back, simply by his presence, waiting for them to be alone. He did not touch the boy in front of him before he felt they were out of earshot, and Bryan began to feel uncomfortable about whether or not they would be able to find the group again before the wind and snows erased their tracks. The adult in his front had a different thing on his mind. "What are you doing here?"

The emerald tilted his head to the side, his face showing… too little. "What do you mean?" He was numb inside, numb and slowly growing into not caring once again. His hopes were that the state was temporary.

"You are not stupid enough not to know. The likes of you are not supposed to be around these kinds of people." His voice was so calm, but it was soothing… and inviting… in that way… It was _that_ voice, that kind of voice… "What gain should come by you being here?"

Bryan felt his throat dry up, and he tried to swallow. He was not sure this had ever happened before, and was not sure what feeling it meant… It was not comfortable, not nice, but he was forced to answer. "I-I'm… Looking for Tala."

"Of course." The man held his distance, knowing the teen in his front was not the exact same as he had worked with in the past. "What if we find Tala, and he has frozen to death in this weather? What then? You would go back to Boris, would you not?" There was the beginning of a smirk on the elder's face.

"Bo-Boris was doi…" He stopped himself, swallowed again with his dry throat, and changed his sentence with his last attempt of thinking for himself. "Boris is dead."

"As far as I heard…" Bryan knew… He was caught… The truth was known… "…you were the one who hit him and killed him…" He had to do something… He had to stop the man… To kill him… "…and the nekos said you were the only one checking for his pulse…" But Bryan… could not move… The voice had him frozen in place… "… and the only one who survived the first encounter with him."

"Y-yes, that is correct, sir." Where did the 'sir' come from? He was going back, going back fast, falling back, falling down, falling, on his way to hit the ground, hit the ground and become a machine once more. "I was the only one."

The scientist truly smirked now. He knew he had the same power as he had had years back, and that the other no longer could be a danger for him. He stepped closer, feeling revenge coming closer and closer… "Is it then possible to assume that my former employer… may not be gone?"

Bryan opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He… he could neither agree not deny. He could not tell the truth and betray his superior, or lie and disobey commands. It was an impossible choice, and he stood stiff in front of the man, his mouth open in a silent answer. And that answer was all the man needed. His smirk changed into a smile, a true smile this time, one that reached his eyes.

First he pocketed one of his hands in his white coat that declared him a scientist . "That was all the information I needed." His other arm went wide, as though the man wanted to give him a one-armed hug. "But truth is I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You understand that?" He moved a little closer while Bryan's head nodded without his mind's consent. "Come here." His smile was warm… but wrong. He got close enough to wrap his not pocketed hand around his back and the other followed as soon as they were about close enough for the emerald not to see.

He still saw the glint of metal out of the corner of his eye, since the scientist took his hand up from his coat a little too early. He saw it… but half a second too late.

His arm shot out from his body, leading the knife away from his back, but the blade had already cut into his skin like a scissor through fabric, and his reaction made the damage worse. He felt liquid make the shirt stick to his, the blade having cut through his muscles. It may have been a little too late, and the cut may be deep, but had it been half a second later, the blade would have hit his kidney or other vital parts of his body, bringing internal bleeding and death without proper care. And there would be no one to know.

The man drew back, the bloody blade still in hand, but he suddenly seemed scared. He had not expected for it to become a fight. He had expected to take out the knife, put the boy into his power, bring a deadly and painful wound and then slit the throat or stab the heart. He knew he was the weaker one, and might still be even when the teen was wounded.

Bryan snorted angrily and drew his hand back to the cut on his back to assess the wound. He could lift the skin beneath his clothes, feel the cut flesh and the blood pouring out. A heated, unpleasant feeling filled him despite the lack of real pain, adrenaline spread in his body, and he crouched down to ready his attack. The scientist meant danger for himself, and though it was unusual for him, he decided to put himself above the man in front of him. Besides, the man had knowledge of something dangerous for… a man.

The man lowered the blade just slightly too much, not used to combat, and the opening was too good for the teen to miss. Bryan jumped, roaring like a bull as he charged, his foot flying at the knife. The wind carried the sound away, but his boot hit the razor-sharp blade and the hand which held it hard. The knife cut into the leather of the boot before flying off, and the scientist stepped back again. The bag he had taken from the camp to carry was still on his shoulder, he realized, and he let it fall to the ground to get extra agility.

This movement made the man jump forward, knowing Bryan's attention was elsewhere for a second, and his fist flew towards the teen's face. Bryan took a step back, the snow whirling around them, and used the man's own momentum to push him forward. The scientist stepped forward, his foot hitting the bound fabric the emerald had just discarded and making him lose his balance. He flew face down into the snow, but was fast to turn over to his back, knowing his life was in grave danger and trying to flee or fight. None of it got possible as a heavy boot set upon his chest, pressing him down while green eyes seemed to contemplate how best to kill off the man.

He was about to crouch down, his hands on their way to break the man's neck when something got into view in the corner of his eyes. He looked up, and so did the scientist. Shadows of people… people they knew. The emerald did not let himself bother, though, and turned back to his task, crouching down to choke the man.

"Help!" the man yelped, his voice loud enough to reach the newcomers through the wind. They ran suddenly, Bryan only getting a glimpse of long black and silver-blue hair before tumbling down, an adult neko-jin upon him and Garland helping the scientist to his feet. The man in the white coat shivered, snow sticking to his graying hair and having dyed his skin bluish. Bao and a neko-jin-woman stood behind, the emerald able to see them over the shoulder of the man sitting upon him.

He was in trouble, yes, he knew, his word meaning nothing against the elder's. Yet he was calm feeling, staring into Bao's golden eyes. Normally, he would be fighting the man upon him and maybe win, be filled with emotions he hardly was able to handle, but not now. Not this moment. And for reasons he did not understand.

"He snapped, again!" the scientist said, panting after the panic that had filled him before. Bao's eyes moved from the scientist to Bryan, and met his eyes. "He's unstable! I told it to you." The emerald just lay there, staring into those eyes. Why was he so calm? Why was he so certain they this would not end wrongly, despite his logical knowledge of the current situation? He was about to get punished for attacking the other man, something he had indeed done, but on terms he could not prove with their constant suspicion of him. They would probably send him off, now that Tala or Ian was no longer present to stop them.

The scientist continued speaking, calming down slightly and beginning to sound more reasonable. Another bad thing regarding the emerald, who just held his eye on Bao's from his position in the snow. That was when a miracle happened, and Garland's eyes reached the bloody knife lying in the snow. He moved closer and picked it up, looking at the scientist, who had suddenly gotten quiet. "Are you hurt?"

"… I… N-…" The scientist seemed to have the same problem of a dry throat as he forced Bryan to experience a little while earlier. "I… He attacked me… I just…"

"Let Bryan get to his feet," Bao commanded, and the neko-jin standing upon him moved and offered a hand he did not take. The blood from his wound had made a red mark in the snow where he had laid, and the blood was still pooling out. Still, the teen stared only at Bao, who moved his eyes away to the scientist. "If he attacked you, a man not trained nearly as well for combat as Bryan, how were you able to inflict a wound behind his back?"

… They believed in _him_? The emerald felt his eyes widen, and he finally looked away, down into the snow. Then he realized… He had already known it would end like this. "He… Tried to…" It was so weird to say. "Hug me. And then… tried to stab me."

The scientist backed away, surprised more than the others that Bryan spoke of the problem. His eyes moved from the teen back to the adults, gritting his teeth and denying nothing. "I was simply trying to lift a burden from our shoulders. This boy is far too strong and his allegiance far too uncertain for us to trust him. I know him better than any of you. He is too easy to manipulate and control in the hands of the wrong people."

The emerald could not find any anger to growl at the man's mention of him like he was a thing, a dog or not even in the room. It was far too normal for him. But the others present seemed to think otherwise. "And how do you know him better than us to make such statements?" the one who had just pinned the teen down asked.

The scientist did not get time to answer. "Because he was one of those who made me." Even Bryan described it as if he was a chair someone had carelessly hammered legs and a back unto. "He must be the last from the project still alive. The rest got killed when I was as finished as possible."

The scientist was silent for a moment, pressing his lips together. "I have no wish to go back to Boris, and I am regretting my doings against this young man, but he is too dangerous for us. He is not possible to handle."

"If you truly regret anything, then why do you not try to make it right?" Bao sneered, his fangs bared in sudden anger. He moved towards the wounded teen, worried about the depth of his wound as well as the feelings that might be troublesome for the young, frail mind. He tried to put an arm around the teen for comfort, thinking their relationship having come that far, but the teen moved away, out of his reach.

"Some broken things cannot be fixed. Had he been a dog, any vet would have put him down for his aggressive lashing. Nothing can be done for him, the ideas in his head too far engraved for even Boris to reach." A smile suddenly spread upon the man's face. "He has been lying about crucial things, too. Things you would want to know."

It was hard for him not to snap his head to attention, but Bryan managed. That reaction would make them know the man spoke the truth. Instead, he kicked at the snow uncaringly, his eyes moving to the knife. "May I kill him?"

Though partly interested in what the elder had to say, Bao figured the most pressing matter was to be found by the younger. "No, you may not. There are other options than killing people after they have done you wrong." Green eyes turned up to the golden, confusion filling them. "We cannot let him follow us after he has attacked you, but the chance of survival is better than instant death, and he did not succeed his attempt, did he?"

The scientist tried to speak again, but was cut off by the gray-haired teen's voice. "So we let him wander off in the cold, with the risk of him finding other groups of our people and give harm to them? I will not have him anywhere near Tala." His eyes suddenly grew stiff. It went unnoticed by the adults, though.

"Oh, yes, your captain," the scientist drawled, for a moment letting go of the truth he held. "Tala is another you should be cautious of. He has abilities and feelings he is not using. He is bound to snap, and with _that_ man in your care, it will be soon." The emerald's nosestrills flared with sudden anger. "That _demon_ is better at killing and more dangerous than even Bryan. If he begins to show any signs of unsteadiness, you should rid yourselves of him."

The gray-haired teen jumped forward, controlled by his anger. To the luck of the man in the white coat, Garland was fast enough to step in and grab the teen, though the other was trembling with contained feelings underneath his hand. "I have a lot of information you might miss. And the lie that Bryan has laid you to believe is too dangerous to-" Not another word came out of his mouth. Bryan had seen the knife still held by the light-haired bluenette and snatched it from him with inhuman speed.

The next moment, the blade tore into the man's throat, drowning his words and making him fall, and his former project stepped forward, pressing the last life out of him with a boot.

"Never, _ever_, let my superiors be endangered. That was something you taught me, remember?" His words were nothing but a faint slithering of sound, yet it could be heard clearly through the strong winds by everyone in the clearing.

* * *

Maxim seemed very confused about the sudden change in the mood at the sight of their smaller member, but he did not complain, as the redhead commanded Kai off of him nearly immediately after Ian appeared. The slate had the decency to offer the soldier a hand. It was the one of metal, of course, icy cold from the air of the outside. They trusted the younger's judgment of him enough to decide he was no danger.

Kai watched him dust the worst of the snow away from his coat, shivering slightly in the wind and trying to recover from the shock and pain from getting hit by a meteor shaped like a teenager. It was then Kai realized his level of fatigue, and he stifled a yawn, trying to hide it with his hand as he turned his attention to Ian trying to pry Tala's joyful body from his waist so he could get back to the ground.

The Russian soldier raised an eyebrow as he saw this and shook his head with frown. "Walking all night?" he asked, and Kai again turned his head to the man. He shrugged, not wanting to tell him that his legs felt like lead, his head like it had been hit by a brick, and his stomach churning in a mixture of hunger and protest of having been awake for so long. Not even if he had been able to he would have told. "Thought so. Daring idiots." The soldier turned to Tala, who had finally let go of Ian and was watching the two as if he was calculating a mathematical equation.

"Kai woke late after that headache-thing, and we had to move to make sure not to be found. We did not know how far the enemy was." The joy of meeting Ian again was subsiding, and the wolf-carrier was back in his leader-position. Kai could not decide if the swaying of his body came from fever or weariness.

"I thought I had given you protection from their death-tool," Maxim said in a nearly scolding tone.

"Nnng – Nosebleed," Kai formed, nodding to the redhead. He would not say anymore and was even proud of having spoken so precisely and securely, even if it was only a single word. It said everything he needed to say.

All Maxim did was nod. Nothing more. He knew the boy he spoke to knew it had been risking his own life, but the choice had been the other over him. The graceful and capable leader over the one who was broken and crumbled doing the only thing he was good at. "So be it, then. Come to the camp and get ready for breakfast. The others are probably getting ready for food, and I will not believe you are not hungry or tired after such a long walk in the dark. You may seem superhuman, but I _have_ noticed limits."  
His voice was half-humorous, and Tala's mouth twitched, finding it quite amusing, and Ian was visibly smiling. Kai, on the other hand, was not feeling the same way, and he fell in behind them, following with no real wish to. They were at the border of the camp, laying only fifty feet or so away, and the early risers had risen, well, early. They were trying to make fires defying the whirling winds of the coming storm and were lucky enough to actually have supplies and equipment with them for their cooking, unlike the two tired teens.

The thought of a real, satisfying meal made the slate and redhead forget their weariness long enough to find a beginning fire with the rest of the group that had happily met in the early hours of the forest, getting it to a satisfying heat before beginning to prepare the food. Logs rotting in the forest had been rolled closer to make a more decent place to sit. Their clothes could not get anymore dirty at the time, anyway.

The only thing the group had to eat were old lumps of bread, some collected nuts and rotting fruits, and finally a small piece of meat, and for the convenience of it, they put it all on a single frying pan. The mix could be called nothing but disgusting, yet Kai found his teeth watering by the mere smell. Neither of the two cared for the burned or black parts of the food when they wolfed it down, the slate sure he had never eaten anything that _fabulous_.

He listened to the conversation, but even if he could speak properly, he probably still would have kept silent. Instead he followed the tale of their chaotic escape from the mouths of some of the others. Xiu was a part of the group they had met, a silent shadow which had sat beside Tala, but she seemed so happy that he was alright and awake. Kai could not help but wonder how deep the bond was between them. How real and strong the love from the Chinese girl was.

Then miserable dinner was eaten and Maxim stood and motioned for him to follow. "I have something you would find interesting," he promised, and the slate warily stood, afraid the man might still be angered that he tackled him from a tree and was planning something. You could never know with such a man, his false arm proof of that.

He was led to the edge of the camp, to a shelter made of thicker and warmer fabric. This Kai found surprising, but he said nothing, not trusting the abilities of his tongue. The flap of the tent was moved away, and the first thing the teen noted was a bundle of clothes and the form of Katyenka dozing off beside it. That was when he noted a tuft of blueish hair sticking up from under the blankets, and he knew who was underneath the giant amount of blankets.

"He awoke not long after we had set up the camp. He is asleep again, and nearly unable to move from exhaustion… I know things might not be that good between you, but you deserved to know." Kai turned his eyes to the man and glared, not sure if this was meant as a helpful deed or not. The feelings in his stomach were twisted, both relief and anger a part of this confusion. He did not know if he was happy that his father was alive and awake… or even sad that the man had not succumbed in the harsh conditions and died. The man Kai two days ago wondered if he should save instead of Tala.

Katyenka yawned tiredly and looked up at him, not even surprised to see him stand there despite her former inattention. "He is eating little, but since his stomach would not be able to take more that is a good thing. He speaks quite well and sanely, but is only able to whisper." She smiled kindly at him, as kindly as she was able to. "He has been asking for you, fearing that you were dead. He would be happy to talk to you."

But will I be happy to talk to him? Kai ended up just nodding and sitting down in Katyenka's place, the female soldier having risen to stand beside Maxim. They nodded to him and turned away, leaving the slate alone.

For the first many minutes he just watched the thin, pale face of his father's, a father he not truly remembered. The man had to have felt a new, more important presence, for not more than a few minutes passed before he stirred and turned, the skin stretched over his skeleton looking like it was going to crack every time he moved. Then the eyes opened, as red as those of his father's. The man turned his head slightly, looking through the light that seemed to burn in his eyes. "Dare ga sokodesu ka?" Susumu asked in nothing but a whisper. Who is there?

"Soo… sore wa watashii… watashidesu… Ssssoore wa… Kai no (Iii… It's m-ee…me… Iiiiit's Kai.)," the son of the man answered, and he heard the man's breath get stuck in his throat. He struggled to breathe, his state so frail he the surprise and, maybe?, happiness was too much for him to handle. The Japanese tongue felt more comfortable in his mouth, the slate noted, and though he was still having trouble, the clearer pronunciations of each syllable were much better.

"Watashi no musuko Kai? (My son Kai?)" he coughed, staring up at the teen above him.

"…Haii," he struggled a bit, but his father understood.

"Watashi wa, anata ga sono mashin ni setsuzoku sareteiru mita. Node, no supīchi o ushinau ka (I saw you attached to that machine. So, you did lose your speech)." Kai just snorted, a sudden anger popping into him. "Gomen'nasai, musuko. Watashi wa anata o kizutsukeru tsumori wa kesshite nakatta (I'm sorry, son. I never meant to hurt you)." It was said in a plea. Still, the first answer he got was a snort.

"So-soree… Ah, sore wa o-so… sssugi-… sugiru… o-oto…san (I-ittt… Ah, it is t-too… lla-… late… f-fa…ther)."

The man beside him whimpered and reached out, grabbing blindly for the hand of his son and just barely succeeding to do so. "Ku-Kudasai. Te kudasai, Kai. I-isshun kiku (P-Please. Please, Kai. L-listen a moment)." His hand was so skinny and shaky it was scaring him, the nails seeming to have crumpled away when the body was not able to keep them growing. He was so thin and weak, but the desperation made him able to keep his grip.

"Iie (no)," Kai answered and forced his arm away, sneering in half disgust, half emotional pain. He was just about to speak when another voice cut through the conversation that was just about to be over.

Footsteps were heard outside – footsteps of more than one person. "What are you doing, Kai?" he heard Tala asked just as the teen came to the entrance of the shelter, and Ian was standing a bit behind him. The blue eyes, still tired since none of the two had gotten to sleep after their nightly walk and glazed since nothing had been done for his fever. His eyes were set on the slate, not noticing the man at first. The midget behind him pushed him to the side, wanting to get inside as more winds were trying to freeze off his nose.

"T…T-tala?" Kai asked, annoyed that he got interrupted, even if he had closed off the conversation and was about to leave. His father stiffened, Susumu's red eyes searched fearfully for the newcomers.

The redhead noticed his faint movements and looked over at the adult, and seeing his face the wolf froze, his eyes locked on the man. A different aura came from him, and Ian pulled away, his younger self having learned to fear that feeling when it came from that boy. Kai, on the other hand, had no memory of the whipping demon-boy, and he frowned confusedly. Susumu tried to drag himself up into a sitting position, failing to get up further than his elbows.

"Please, Tala… Let me explain!" Susumu begged with that weak, whispering voice, and Kai's head snapped to the side to look at him. How did they know each other? "I… It was not my idea, I promise!"

The redhead continued to stare, his jaw becoming tenser, his hands slowly curling up, his eyes angrily narrowing. He was like a bomb, the timer ticking away, and it was going far too fast for anyone to stop.

"Help!" Ian yelped before a red and white lightning bolt flew forward. It was sheer reflexes that made Kai reach out with the robotic hand, and he hit the redhead on the hip just hard enough to make the other lose course. The redhead hit the fabric wall on the other side of Kai's father, rolling out underneath it, and Kai stood and ran out the entrance and around the shelter to make sure the redhead was okay, Ian just behind him.

At least he was not hurt. The redhead was already on his feet when they got to him, a knife in hand and about to destroy the shelter Susumu was inside of. The blade hit the fabric and tore at it. Kai made the first try, jumping at the teen without even knowing what was happening and why the redhead was trying to kill his father. He hit Tala in the jaw, making him fall back, but before he could regain his balance, he was on the ground, the hilt of the blade causing his forehead to bleed, opening the wound from the branches of the spruce.

Now in sight of the raging redhead after the side of the shelter was torn, Susumu was panicking and trying to get up despite the muscles of his body paining and giving in. He had gotten free of the blankets and was trying to stand, but that was too hard a task for him. The wolf stepped towards him just as Ian jumped and seemed to hug him, except that he was confining both arms in the embrace. Tala snarled and let himself fall, the knife and both bodies dropping to the ground. Ian yelped as he got crushed under the weight of his captain.

Tala stood over him a moment later, glaring downwards. "Keep out of my way, Ian," he warned, and the small boy was not a moment in doubt that his captain would kill him if he did not follow that order. As soon as it was said, he turned away, moving eerily slowly back towards the elder Hiwatari.

That was when Kai got back to his feet, and he moved in between, meeting the hateful, blind blue eyes. He met those eyes with his own cold one, his damaged eye unable to keep up the glare. He said nothing, for he could not, and he knew nothing he was able to reach his friend now. "Kai… Move." He gave about half a second for the other to think about it, then brought the knife towards the other's already bleeding face. It was caught by a robotic arm, but the blow from his other hand got through, hitting him squarely in the stomach. He lost his breath, but managed to grab the arm and twist it around, forcing the redhead's back to him. He thought he was going to win when his knee exploded in pain as it was kicked.

His legs buckled without him noticing, and for the second time he fell. He heard footsteps, moments later a scream, and got up again. Xiu was lying on her in front of Tala, staring up at him in the snow. Also Tala had frozen, something sneaking into his face that was not the mindless hate. Guilt and regret. Then he turned away and walked, back towards where they had come from earlier that morning.

Everything had taken less than a moment, and a group of former guards had been running towards them ever since they heard the noises of fighting. They reached them, most of the stopping by the victims, but Maxim came running from a little further back. He continued to Tala and grabbed a hold on his shirt.

"_What_ have gotten into you?" he yelled, forcing the teen towards him. Kai got to his feet and walked towards the two of them as fast as he could, ignoring the men around them. Ian seemed to be doing the same.

"I am going back to Boris," Tala answered, trying to get free from the man's grip.

"No, you stay here until you can think rationally again," Katyenka said, coming right behind Kai and Ian. "What was that about? And what the hell did you _do?_"

"He kind of attacked that man who cannot really move," Ian answered. "Was it Kai's father?"

Tala's head snapped towards the slate, but was shaken by the bearded soldier before he could curse the slate. "You attack a sick man? I thought you had more honor than that." Tala sneered and head butted him in anger, but Maxim did not let go, despite obvious pain. His anger was getting worse, more out of control, but he was still able to contain most of it. "What has gotten into you?"

"He killed my parents!" the wolf choked, trying again to get out of that iron grip. "I am not staying on the same side as the fucking murderer who fucking killed my parents!" There were no tears in his eyes despite the obvious pain the words and thought were bringing him. He continued to kick at him until Kai took out his hand and gripped the red hair.

When he was sure he had the redheads attention, he stared into the blue eyes. They seemed so glazed over, and this time it was not the fever… it was like a fog clouded the mind of the person he knew was too clever for this. But he knew what he had to say. For he was Kai, and when he had had his voice, he had pushed people's special buttons to get his will. "Xi-Xiu?" he asked, and Tala's eyes fell to the ground.

"I cannot stay here," the redhead answered, his struggle having ceased and other emotions reaching his face. "We have to be parted."

"You do not _have to_. Remember, the bastard is skinny. He will probably die anyway. Besides, Boris is dead. You have nothing to go back to. Stay, and we will help you." Kai turned his gaze to Ian, seeing that he still held those fearful eyes, like he thought the redhead was about to snap again. Yet he had reached out to the wolf's elbow. He had spoken those words.

"But… I hit her…"

By the command of Katyenka Maxim let go of him, and the woman gave his shoulder a squeeze, trying and nearly succeeding to act like a mother. "Maybe you have to say sorry, then." He just nodded and forced his head upwards. He was getting back to normal, but the smile was still missing. That smile that told he was normal and relaxed enough to keep the mask.

Kai was the one who dragged him back to where Xiu was getting to her feet, and he parked him in front of her like you would park a car. She stared at him, tears in her eyes, and Kai decided this would be the final test to show him the depth of their relationship. He just begged it would be the right conclusion for Ta-

The sound of the slap rung through the air and followed with the moving wind. Both Tala and Kai stood and stared dumbfounded at the girl, who was staring with tearful eyes at the guy she had learned to love, her cheek red from that very person's hand. She seemed both scared and angry, and looked like hundreds of thoughts were about to make her snap like he had and hit back.

Then she grabbed him in a sob and hugged him, a weak kiss hitting his chin. She had never kissed him before. "Never do that again," she begged. "Never make me that scared again." Then she sealed their lips and kissed him very uncertainly, never having tried to do so before. Tala's one arm sought around her waist, treating her like she was made of porcelain, and guided her through the new experience, moving the other hand up to stroke her hair and giving himself away to her gentle humanity rather than his beastly hate.

But Tala was the one who drew back, and his head turned toward the man he had just tried to kill. The hands of the Chinese girl tightened around his body when she saw, and that hateful expression reached that loved face again. It lasted only a second, though. Then he turned to her again, his feverish breathe stroking over her face, and kissed the cheek he had hit gently, forcing the tears streaking down on it away forever. "I will not. I promise you, I will never… ever… do it again. I promise."

A little off to the side, Maxim and Katyenka sat down beside the shivering body of Kai's father, having been helped to sit by some of the coming soldier. "We have something to talk about later," Katyenka said.

"I know," the skinny man answered shakily, watching the redhead and his son with eyes full of regret.

* * *

And this is my LATE chapter. The Japanese spoken in this chapter is not accurate, formed by a mix of my own knowledge and the help from Google (both search-machine and translate). Then, this is it for my today, and I hope someone actually read this and comes this far ^^

Anyway, enjoy in joy! I will try to update sooner, but I am in a hard place mentally at the moment, so I am afraid to make any promises.


	29. Divided and at risk

And heeeeere is my next chapter ^^ I have truly tried not to go back into the hole of uninspiredness after my flying Christmas, so I tried to make it as soon as I could. Which is when I had gotten the other so far out of my head I had space for new inputs, and ended up being now ^^ I have been writing none-stop since the holiday. Hope you like it!

Reviews:

babydragonXXX: Oh, someone is still reading the story? YAY! I am happy, for I did not know if it was even worth reading. I have had a hard time writing it, because I am getting to the point where I normally end up not writing my longer stories anymore – the point where the story has been thought through so well that I feel like I already have written them in my mind. But for once, I WILL finish this one of my longer stories.

RavenSakura5000: YAY, another reader! And thaaaanks! *takes cookie and eats it* Oh, chocolate chips! I looove chocolate! Anyways, sorry it took so long Dx It is so sad when you have to read back before remembering the scenario. Just hope this comes soon enough, as I really try to get it finished as fast as possible. I am so close to finish this! The day of this chapter is the second or third-last day in this story!

And that's that ^^ Hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Divided and at risk

* * *

The silence in the howling wind was lying around him, and even if he rarely said anything, this silence seemed unnerving. The group was still walking, and the ones that had fallen behind had caught up despite the tracks nearly having been blown away. The sudden death of the scientist had left them baffled, especially after getting to know the story behind his past, and what it had to do with Bryan.

And it was exactly that teen who had grown quiet. They were already slightly distrusting towards him, and even if Baoji and Garland knew for certain that he was on their side… this sudden silence that seemed to be far darker and even fiercer than normal meant that this absolute certainty was becoming very uncertain. The scientist had claimed he had been lying and that his loyalties were divided. Who knew if that was the reason for his sudden silence and this cool aura?

On the other hand, he had just faced someone from a past they knew was not pleasant, and even one who had had such great importance in the 'making' of him. It was no wonder that he was affected by the happenings and as such a hurt and broken boy was truly was the effect coming out of it should be strong. But doubt had been placed in their minds. And they were all very worried about the possible effects if the man's words were true.

They also had told him not to kill and that he had ended up ignoring. The possible lie the teen should have told had not been let to pass the scientist's lips. It could have been a coincidence… but it could also be that he had timed his attack just so his secret would not be known. That his calculating mind calculated a way to make them think it was a coincidence, for they had learned that Bryan knew a lot of things about peoples' minds despite not being able to control his own.

Even if he felt it was a very urgent matter, Baoji decided to let it be for now. They were moving, Bryan was probably fighting his thoughts, and this troublesome puzzle might even be solved without the help of the teen. If he had not reached a conclusion that calmed his mind when they reached a place to set their camp he would confront the teen.

Snow mixed with the wind and became projectiles trying to pierce their skin with their cold. The storm was getting worse, for a storm it had become, and Baoji found himself having less time to think about the current problem than he had first thought. It became impossible to see anything in front of them soon, and afraid that they would end up falling down a cliff or reaching a frozen river without noticing and make half of the group falling through the ice they stopped and sought cover from the wind by going behind big trees.

That was also the place they decided to create their shelters. They bound the ends of their ropes to the trunks of the trees with rope in attempt to prevent it from being blown away during the night, but even with the trees to block the wind it was nearly impossible for them to keep the fabric and the strings under control. They all felt extremely cold and not a single nose was uncovered. To their unluck all clothes were worn and torn and none of them had gloves.

Baoji motioned for Bryan to come and help when he continued to stand out in the open wind and stare back the way they had come. When the teen finally saw his movements he simply shook his head. After a while he went over there anyway, knowing that the neko-jin wanted him to help. "I need to be alone a bit," he yelled through the wind and after a few times of repeating through the howling storm the adult understood.

But even if he understood the words he was not satisfied with the lack of help from the boy. He did nothing to prevent it, though, simply giving him a nod. "As you wish. Stay close, though. I want to be able to find you when I am done with the shelter." Bryan simply nodded at his words before moving away from the settling camp.

He looked back and was only satisfied when he was no longer able to even see the gray shapes of their group. Then he sat down behind a tree, trying to get as much power out of the wind as possible, and breathed on into his hands to warm them a little bit. … Why…? He could not help but wonder. He felt so shameful, and he did not know what and how to deal with it. And the worst was not that he had no-one to share it with. He could not even tell Tala even if his captain actually was alive and present. No, that was not the worst of it.

The worst of it was why… and where.

His one hand sought down his pocket, but what he wanted to find was no longer there. He gritted his teeth and hit the trunk of the tree hard in a flash of anger. The cold hand felt like it burned after the contact, the wind having left the skin raw, red and soon frostbitten, and he immediately regretted his action as the blood came out from cracks in the worn flesh. Then his eyes fell on the snow beside him, and the blood was suddenly forgotten for this small while.

Small twigs had fallen from the tree when he had hit it, and he reached out to grab one, finding an alternative for what he had lost. He did not have any paper or a pen, but he could still write. And what he needed the most in this empty feeling that he did not really recognize was to get it out. The end of the twig caressed the still snow in front of him, scratching the top away. Crystals from the wind reached for my words and bit at the edges but the tree kept them safe enough to be read. Those tree questions.

_Why do I lie to them?_

_Why do I protect him?_

_Where is my true allegiance?_

They were parted from each other with a great distance, the top one getting slowly hidden by the incoming snow. The last two were kept totally safe. And those words stared up at him, trying to cut him with their invisible eyes.

The twig hit the surface of the snow beneath the first question, closing his eyes at first before letting them fall to the words his hand had created. Since he had tried not to think and had not watched as he had written, the words were crooked and slightly surprising. It was very impressive how readable they were.

_Because they do not trust me and none of them are my superiors._ He bit his lower lip and read on. He was not sure if this unconscious part was right… what about Bao? _Things would be different if Tala had been there… And I cannot betray him._ His worry flared again even if he was the one who had left the redhead behind. He could be dead…

It took him a while to decide whether he could trust the words on the ground or not. It was when he remembered the looks he had gotten from the group he had travelled with that he knew. Those looks from the people who had been there and his confrontation. After they had left the body of the scientist. How they had changed back to what they had been in the beginning. He had not even been absolutely sure they trusted him before. They had believed him over the scientist… but those eyes…

They did not trust him. If they did not trust him, then he did not have to be honest with them. If they did not respect him, he had no reason to respect them… At least that was what Tala always had claimed.

The next question proved harder, and even if he let himself go like he had before his hand would not write anything before his closed eyes. Instead he felt his hand tremble more and more the longer he dug into the matter, and it was not from the cold that still surrounded him. He lips began to tremble too, and his eyes water, even if his insides felt as hard and frozen as the wind he shielded himself from.

_Why do I protect him?_

"Bryan?" a voice said, and the twig in his hand broke as he jumped in surprise. "So it _was_ this way you were going, then." Baoji's voice sounded slightly relieved, but Bryan stressed as he got to his feet and destroyed the snow he had written in. If they found those questions they would lose every inch of trust they might have in him, and it would get him into very serious trouble. Then he finally turned to the neko-jin.

"The camp is set?" he asked, knowing the answer to the question. He also knew the real subject of their conversation, and why the man had come here. The trust in that man had been broken.

The man simply nodded and came closer, also trying to find cover from the wind. "Yes, it is set. We have also tried to make fires, but… It is troublesome. The wind continuously destroys the sparks we are able to make. Dinner is cold tonight." The teen simply nodded, leaning in towards the trunk of the tree now that he no longer had his words to worry about. "I came for another reason, though." Here it came. "Do you know what lie the man mentioned?"

Bryan simply closed his eyes to cover the slight hurt actually seen in them. He was nothing but a thing. Why would he expect the man to be kind, to be trusting and caring? No-one should care for him – not even Tala. "If it was a lie that I did not make, how should I then know what he was talking about?" he simply asked, pushing himself away from the tre. "I am tired," he said and walked past the man. "I will go to sleep already."

"So you will just let us make the camp only to take over the shelters and go to sleep?" Bao asked annoyed.

"If you want me to freeze to dead sleeping outside, you can just go on and say so. I will understand."

Baoji watched his retreating back with a feeling of regret and sympathy filling his chest. He suddenly felt bad for having said the last part, even if it was not a wrong thing to say. He shook his head and went back to their poorly made camp through the storm and snow. Some part of his mind felt even worse for the gray-haired teen than he had done before. What the reason was he could not decipher, but he decided to stay close to the boy – just in case.

He got a glimpse of the teen as he moved into one of the shelters. The neko-jin went for one of the packs that were bound to a tree so that it would not be blown away and found some food to satisfy his stomach. He would sit by the teen as the younger lied in the shelter.

It could be no surprise that Bryan had a hard time falling asleep. He actually was truly tired. Tired by the fact that they had been wandering in the wildness for so long, tired that his emotions were constantly running high and stressing him out, tired that the world could be so confusing even when you had lived in it for… Was it 18 or 19 years now? He was so tired, and he needed more than physical sleep to fight it off. He needed years of stability to recover, not sleep.

The wind tearing at the flowing walls around him roared angrily at his attempts of sleep, and he had a hole in his stomach after not having eaten for the whole day. It was unpleasant, and the surface he lied on was very hard… It was not unbearably cold, but still… So how had would he ever fall asleep…? It would be absolutely impos-…

_The bed was so soft. Everything was so white. Hospital? Was this how a hospital looked? He thought it was. Maybe it was. It was so long since. Why was it so long? The world had changed so much… So much… Tala? Where was he?_

_He sat up in the bed, turning around to search for him. The room was deserted and he pushed away the covers to get all the way up. There was a single, black door in the room. He went for it, but when he reached out it opened widely._

_Boris stood in front of him, his black glasses covering the crimson eyes. Bryan stepped back, eyes widening, and the man smiled at him when he saw it. "So filled with emotions." The walls had gotten dark and become those of stone, looking exactly like the walls of the Abbey. Boris stepped closer and the teen continued backwards, an eerie feeling filling him with fear. "You are looking for Tala?" Bryan nodded mindlessly. "Have you forgotten you need your punishment?"_

_Bryan's eyes widened even further and his lips trembled. "But Tala… I have to find him. He is in danger…" His voice was so weak – it was all because of Boris. He had no power… no control at all… in front of Boris…_

_The open door behind Boris disappeared and the man grabbed his shoulder, physically forcing him back towards the still white bed. That was when he realized he was naked, and his knees buckled when they hit the bed. "I will tell you where he is after we are done," he said, snatching his arm and forcing him up towards the head of the bed._

"_P-please… I don't want to… I don't… Bo-Boris, I will be nice, I will never defy you again, never, please, just, I need to… Don't touch there… No!…" His begging was not heard by the man. Those glasses covered those eyes, meaning that Bryan was unable to see them, but it meant nothing. It meant nothing. He still felt them. "I-I… Ta-Tala… Boris, p-please, I need to fi-"_

He sat up straight when a hand shook him. He felt tears on his cheeks and wondered when they had begun. "Wh-what?" he asked, his whole body shaking. And not from the cold. He felt hot, sweaty, though the wind was still howling outside and the snow covered the ground with a thicker and thicker layer. He felt so hot and… ashamed.

His stomach.

It was twisting, like he was about to throw up. A hand lay on his forehead, but it was not there long. He jumped up and out of the shelter, just in time to let the little contents he had in his stomach out. That was… a new experience.

A hand gripped the back of his shirt and took him back inside the tent. "Are you alright?" He could barely make out the silhouette of Baoji and only recognized him by the voice. Bryan forced his nod and fought a shiver, closing his eyes as the man pulled him closer. "You have a fever," he said, trying to keep the teen warm.

To his sadness the emerald pulled away as he was no longer able to keep his trust in the man. "I am fine. Absolutely fine." Another shiver coursed through his body, making the last words tremble too. "Why… Why are you here?"

"I heard you mumbling and decided to wake you. It is not hard to understand it was a nightmare." Bryan looked away from him though the darkness kept their faces hidden. "What… I… think I know what it was about," the man mumbled. He sounded very uncertain and even slightly scared, and that was what made Bryan fear he was right.

"Wh-why?" he asked, not even trying to deny it. Like the scientist had known something, this man knew, too.

He heard shuffling from the other side of the shelter, and felt a hand touch him again, this time on the hair. The hurt and shame in his stomach that made it twist like it did, that made him throw up like it did made him lean in towards it. He did not want to let the man comfort him and seem to trust him, but his insides… he felt so bad and wounded inside, and he was so tired… so tired and drained.

"I… noted some things last time you were with Boris. The time we invaded the underground halls and your whole team was wiped out…" He dragged the boy towards him again, letting him lean into his chest. He did, however, still let the boy drag himself away if he wished to. "I hoped a sick part of my imagination was toying with me, which is the reason why I never got around to… ask you." He knew he had broken their bond again, the fragile bond they had formed. It was now he decided something was more important than a possibly life-threatening lie.

And that something was the sanity of a broken boy who had so many qualities they needed, and who needed a pillar in his life.

"I… got very certain when I heard your mumbling." The problem was just that he had never experienced anything like this before. Not that he had tried anything surrounding this boy before, but this seemed so much more physical than every other thing he had tried – so closer than what he could imagine. He wanted something to say, something to do to help the teen pass this without being hurt more than he already had. "W-…was it bad?"

He just had nothing good to say. Nothing at all.

Fortunately for him this boy was not any other boy and did not expect much of him or feel that it was either stupid or passing his border of privacy. "Yes… Not at the time he did it… It was before we left the building, a year ago…? I did not feel it like I do now, but… I think… that what the experiences left with me… was what made me crack…" The neko-jin noticed his clothes getting wet. He was crying again. The one who had been so empty was filled with tears again.

Baoji was quite sure it was a good thing after the stillness that had been in the boy for so long… But the words of the teen found yet another way to scare him. The… 'experiences', as he described it, had made an impact so deep not even the frozen form his insides had been for so long could contain the pressure. Even after having 'cracked' he had not share it with anyone. "It… it hurts me to hear you tell me this," he mumbled, trying to find a better way to keep him in a kind embrace. "But if you need to share anything, _anything_, I will listen no matter what."

Then he felt something he thought was very bad.

He felt the younger stiffen.

_Why do I protect him?_

Bryan grabbed an even harder hold in his shirt.

_Where is my true allegiance?_

"It… I…" He shook his head and pushed himself away from him. "I need to find Tala."

The man sighed in slight defeat and let go of him. "Will you promise me something?" he asked, looking at the emerald through the darkness. His voice was thick with worry and care for this ill human in front of him.

Bryan nodded curtly, not really listening as he tried to get up on his fevered legs, sweat still covering his body.

"Will you set yourself first? Just for this single night? Get something to eat and rest as much as you can? Let other people take the watches and try to sleep until someone wakes you up?" Bryan turned his head towards the man, an odd expression on his face. "Will you take care of yourself just for this moment? Be selfish, _please_!"

The gray-haired head tilted towards the ground in what was not necessarily a nod.

_Why do I lie to them?_

They did not trust him…

_Why do I protect him?_

… but maybe…

_Where is my true allegiance?_

… he did not need their trust…

* * *

Things had calmed down in the camp. The heated feelings that formerly were running at high speed had stilled and been replaced with comforting and relaxed ones. On the emotional front it had quieted again. On the other front, the more physical front, chaos was ensuing as the wind was going in stronger waves, forcing them to seek into the tents they half an hour ago was just about to break up.

They all agreed that they could not continue in this weather, so the fact that they had not gotten far with taking down the tents proved a positive thing. They could shelter themselves from the worst of the winds. A thing some worried about, though, was that their own shelter would be torn off the ground be a more vicious gust of wind and make them lose some of their precious belongings. When you had nearly nothing, all you had was valuable.

For two of the residents of the camp, the storm could be claimed a blessing. Though a blessing they themselves did not value a lot. Kai and Tala got the time to rest what their nightly hike had taken from them, though neither of them truly felt safe being where they were. They had moved through the night to get away from possible enemies. The time the night had given them could be lost by sitting still in this tent in this storm.

Ian soothed them, or rather the redhead that voiced the worries of them both, by saying that their enemy had to be forced to a standstill in this storm just like themselves had been. The redhead was in a negative mood and answered that they had the technology and machinery their own group had not, which might make them able to travel in spite of the weather. This made Xiu pat his hair slightly and whisper something to him the other could not hear.

It did not make Tala worry less, but he nodded. The expression on his face told them that what she had told him had nothing to do with possible warm feelings, and Ian therefore decided not to make puking-noises to annoy them.

It did not take long after this before Kai stood. The conversation about whether they would be caught as a course of this storm or not ended and they got to some brighter point. The slate still chose not to be a part of their company, even if it no longer contained anything concerning his negative thoughts. His eyes laid on Tala, the bad eye making it hard to see all of his form in the blurred darkness, and he could still feel something that concerned him far more.

"Where are you going?" Tala asked when he crawled for the exit, just getting to the point where he allowed the cold air to go inside their already cold confinement. They were sitting extremely close to keep each other's heat and already when he broke the circle he let the cold get closer.

There was that low hum that told them he was preparing his tongue and throat to speak. It was not succeeding at all this time, unfortunately. "I… Ah… … Agh… Aa-a-i-ir…" Air. Fresh air. Was it _that_ hard to say? He just wanted air. _Air_. It was a single syllable, not a whole damn sentence of crisscrossing words like 'how can a clam cram in a clean cream can?' It was a damn single word!

_I can help you with that if you help me. You just have to ask._

That damned voice again. That damn beast. 'You have kept awfully silent these past days,' he simply commented, wondering if he should just ignore the damn thing. He closed the shelter tightly behind him, the wind hurting the bare skin on his face and hand. He took the dirty scarf he still carried around his neck up to his nose and scouted through the wind to find the shelter he wanted, but the white, sharp crystal in the air made it impossible for him to see anything. It was a clearing after all. No trees or bushes broke the path of the freezing wind.

_I can help you with that, too_, the voice promised. Kai was just about to ask what he should sacrifice in order to get this 'help' when he felt a pull that led him towards a particular tent. He heard the muffled sound of voices through the wind and ignore the fact that he interrupted a conversation when he opened the tent and sat down inside. Health was more important the courtesy, and if even he was freezing in this weather it was bad.

His father was inside, sitting up with the help from some bundled blankets. He was nothing but a skeleton, so malnourished that he was even unable to stand, and yet he was the course of the swinging and harsh mood of a certain redhead… Even if said redhead was fighting to hide it. He had questions and felt he had the same right to get answers as the redhead. The man had wronged more than one person – and he was his father.

The people Susumu had been talking to were Maxim and Katyenka. They had taken a kind of leader-role in the group, taking care and holding on to the big picture. Of course they needed to know what a possible murderer meant for the group, especially one who had such an effect on a valuable member like Tala.

The conversation was silenced when he came in to the tent, but he did nothing to break it. All he did was stare. Glare with those violet eyes, keeping them directly on his father without even blinking. The man shifted uncomfortably in his seat, the weight of the Hiwatari-glare even too intense for a Hiwatari.

He swallowed to try and break the silence, the shivers running up his spine getting too much for him. "I see you have a lot of my father in you," he weakly whispered, and got the reaction he wished for. The eyes were removed. And the shame set upon the younger one's face, so strong they all could feel it through the darkness. "But you are not his mirror image. I have never seen shame on his face."

"…Sh-… Shut-… Ihh-…" he tried, he tried hard, but was unable to form the last, single word. He expected a look from his father that was both taunting and patronizing, but neither the feelings nor signs he got were like that. It laid somewhere between worry and sympathy. None of which made him feel better.

"Change of topic," Maxim said, scratching his beard and watching as Kai was just about to get ready to glare again. "I think Kai has come to know the same things we were conversing about, so if you would mind retelling your story?"

If they were talking about this thing with this man killing Tala's parents, the soldier was absolutely correct. The violet eyes turned from the emaciated man to the soldier and then back again, doing his best to hide his embarrassment of his speech disorder. The man met his gaze and then nodded slowly through the darkness, knowing he owed his son the explanations of every part of his actions since even before the kid had been born.

"It was my job," he said in a dull voice. "I was the one who made sure the parents of the children getting caught for the Abbey did not try to look for them. So… Voltaire made me kill them. Or rather ordered." His voice was so dull and blank of emotions. He seemed to have accepted it so much that not even regret came into his voice. "Often the children were home when I came, and to prevent them from recognizing me when I wandered the Abbey so they could blame their new home for the loss of their parents I wore a mask."

A thin hand lifted itself to his forehead, rubbing it when the regret finally reached his face. "The kids always froze when their parents fell or fled to the corner of the room or through a door crying. About twenty minutes after I was done with my part, Boris would go into the house to get them, telling them they could get a new home with people who cared for them and revenge of their parents if they wished for it. Both of these were lies, of course.

But one kid was… different." This was where the regret truly blossomed, and his weak, whispering voice thickened. "A redheaded boy who was the son of an opposing, Jewish businessman racing the legal part of the Hiwatari Corporation acted very… very wrongly for his age. His father was so much trouble Voltaire wanted him away. Since he had a son Boris requested that we took him to the Abbey to try out his strength… A test that was never necessary.

Already when I went into the house and shot his mother he proved to be… very special. Unlike any other kid I had met he stayed firm in the room, and when his father proved able to fight back and the gun was thrown out of my hand he grabbed it and took it in his hand, trying hard to press the trigger and kill me." He swallowed. "A child at the age of four with _murder_ in his eyes. He was the only one to see my face. Despite his age he was as mentally strong as his father, and luckily for me, he had the physicality of his mother… Had he been just a little stronger, I would be dead."

Then he shook his head. "That was when I began to doubt my work. It is not that I liked it before it happened, but I realized exactly _what_ I could do to the kids whose parents I killed. Tala was one of a kind, a child I would never see the likes of, and still he was the very example of the damage I did. He was the reason I demanded not to kill for my father anymore. But my action is also why he hates me."

Katyenka snorted, obviously not liking the man even the slightest bit. "And I cannot blame him."

Susumu was about to answer when Kai cleared his throat to tell them he wanted to say something. Which they all respected, and he _knew_ that it was because of his trouble speaking. "W…w…Ah-why?" he asked, gritting his teeth as he could feel their confusion in his lacking question. He had to explain further. "…Y-y-… Ah… You l-listen… ned."

Susumu took a deep breath before answering. "Why I listened to my father?" he asked, just to be certain of the question. His son nodded, the slate bangs falling in front of his face as he stared at his father. Here obvious shame came into his voice. "I wanted him to look at me," he answered, closing his eyes and leaning back against the bundled blankets. The wind was flapping at the sides of the shelter as silence spread, the darkness hiding that single tear falling down the face of the deadly thin man from the people around him.

His did not move or stir as he continued speaking. "I wanted him to say that I was not a fail for him. I wanted him to tell me that he no longer wished he had gotten another son before his wife died. I wanted him to smile when I stood before him, just one single time. I would do everything for him if it meant he would tell me he was proud. For him to tell me that I was not the shame of our family-name." That single tear fell onto his dirty clothes.

"I told him I wanted to be part of his business. The first assignments I got were paperwork. He was not satisfied, so I asked him if I could do something better. He then made me steal. When I found that was not enough, I asked if there was something more important I could do for him. That was when he gave me a gun and said that I could get rid of troublesome persons for him. _If I was even strong enough to do that_. I married a woman I did not like for him, and the only time he smiled at the wedding was in front of the camera from the press.

It was first when I got my son that he was satisfied with at least one of me doings in life." A smile came to his face at the mention of Kai, but it was a sad and frozen one. "'Then we have a least one worthy of bringing on our honorable name', he said. But he slowly began making Kai part of his 'project', and I met Tala. I had gotten something more important to me that my father, and I did not want it to… change."

'You left.' It was all that could pass through Kai's mind as he stared at that man from behind he bangs. 'You left me, and you never came back. You let me and all the other children you had helped put in that place rot behind those walls without anyone to care. I am just lucky I do not remember most of the things that happened in there.'

It was as though the man knew what passed Kai's mind, and he simply nodded his head with absolutely no power behind it. He was getting tired, so tired… And he was freezing despite the many blankets they had spared on him. He had been awake for too long compared to his condition, and though Katyenka did not like him she knew it would not be fair to let him die. He was a human being… and yet another victim of Voltaire Hiwatari.

So she rose to drive the two males out of his tent when Susumu spoke again. "I tried, Kai…" he murmured, opening his crimson eyes again where it had just looked like he had been about to sleep. "I tried to take you with me when I left. But Voltaire did not want it, and he dragged the case to court. Your mother took his side. With both a rich businessman and the mother against me… and with my criminal record having the crimes I had done for my father on it… I had been taken stealing from banks and armories… I could not win. I could not legally take you."

Kai simply snorted. There was absolutely nothing else to do. If that man had wanted him away from the pain he had known his so-called important son would endure he would have taken that son with him… If he truly had cared, he would not have let it happen. He would not have disappeared out of his life like he had done. He would have fought _harder_.

They stepped out of the shelter, the bearded soldier regarding him for a moment. Then he sighed. "I promise you, you are not the only teenager who has had problems with their parents." Then he moved away. And though he knew it was only an attempt of comforting words, Kai's mind sarcastically remarked that at least other teenagers no longer had their evil, irritating parents in the world.

No matter what the man had said, the slate had not felt the least more convinced that his father deserved a new chance and a new place in his life. _He would probably like to hear you say that directly to him. Wouldn't you like to do so? I am there at your service… if you are there at mine._

'Shut up', Kai answered harshly. He wanted his words back, wanted his life, he wanted a father to be there for him, but what he wanted more than anything was getting Dranzer. She was no longer in her chip. He knew that even if he had yet to find his beyblade, she was no longer there. That made it hard for him to find her, though he could feel her in the air around him. She was not attached to an object… He could not hold on to her and keep her.

But something was more important – if he let the dark beast control him, he would betray her again. He would no longer be able to get her back, to show her how he missed her and what he would do for her. He already did not deserve her care.

The black phoenix kept silent, but he was very sure it was not to follow orders. It was simply silent, following his thoughts so closely he felt like it was breathing a hot breathe in some inner neck he held in his mind. Paranoia. He shook it off and went on his way to the shelter with Ian and Tala. He had forgotten the wind and the snow whirling around him for a moment, and his bare face and hands had paid the price for that.

He removed the flap of the entrance and sat down, and the tiredness came back to him at full force. He was surprised to see the redhead lying with his head in the lap of the neko-jin girl and his legs curled up to him, close to sleep. As the slate sat down, he listened to the low talk Ian and Xiu tried to develop between them… He wondered if he should sleep, too, but decided not. He might have trouble sleeping in the night… though he was quite sure the evening was getting closer and closer.

* * *

The first thing Bryan noted was the total silence. He heard the breathing of the neko-jin beside him and could feel on his frozen toes that he should be happy to be held by the man. He was not warm, but the important pieces of his body still had a comfortable temperature compared to the air around him. But besides that breathing, the surroundings were incredibly silent. He could remember a constant noise from yesterday, and this silence made him feel very edgy.

He wriggled out of the adult's embrace, managing to get free without waking the man, and crawled through the entrance to find the source of the silence. His head felt light in a way he did not recognize, and when he rose from his hands and knees black spots danced before his eyes. He swayed lightly, shaking his head to clear it, and then finally realized why the world was so oddly silent when his vision returned. The wind had stopped.

The place was peaceful and the wind had left a whole forest of untouched snow. It seemed soft and light as sugar, and though his stomach and head felt unsettled and twisted he had to smile. Since he did not feel hungry he decided to take a walk, to get away from the people who mostly hated him. The snow reminded him of home, and despite the fact that home had never been safe it was something. The frosty air and clear sky lightened the nauseating feeling in his stomach and emptied his head of distracting, painful thoughts.

The sun was rising, but no-one else was rising with. They all were exhausted, and now that the sudden silence brought this peace over them. Like they were finally away from all those who were trying to harm them. They had to be far away from the enemy now, having walked for so many days. And the comfortable silence made Bryan unworried about walking off alone. Some, or rather one, of the adults of the camp might worry, but he would not care.

He moved through the newly fallen snow, watching his breath in the air before him. He did not have enough clothes on for the weather, but as a Russian he decided these high temperatures should not scare him off. The weather back home was far fiercer, and even the storm had not been bad compared to some of those his team had been forced through in their childhood. Now the sky was clear and the air stood still, and it felt like time stopped with it.

The naked trees and bushes were parted as he walked, his movements feeling as light as his head. He truly felt like smiling, truly felt at ease, and closed his eyes for a moment. A moment too long.

The next moment he felt like he was falling, and he strangled his cry as he slid down the hill in the purely white snow before finally catching himself. When he got back to his feet the gray-haired teen looked back where he had come from and found the slope he had just tripped down from. A slope so steep it was an obstacle too tall for him to climb. Mumbling curses under his breath as he tried to find another way back to the camp he once again was unaware, and suddenly realized he had fallen down beside a road from the years where humans actually were there to use them.

He frowned confusedly when he actually was met with a horde of dark vehicles of the exact same kind, all of them missing license plates. What was even more surprising was the fact that _humans_ were walking beside them, in bulletproof vests and obvious arms at their sides. He dived behind a bush fast, his mind telling him of danger and wanting him to run. But nstincts did not matter for him and he closed in of the vehicles, hoping to eavesdrop on something important.

It was dangerous, and the snow made it impossible for him to cover his tracks. Even if he was able to get away without being caught they would be able to see that someone had been hiding there and, even worse, they would be able to follow his tracks. The seized wind no longer made sure you could walk without leaving obvious tracks.

He found himself holding his breath as he moved closer, cursing in his head whenever the snow creaked underneath his feet. Since he was close to the road already when he had fallen it required only few steps to get close enough to hear the conversations. He crouched behind a bush beside the overgrown, oversnowed road just as a pair of men came close enough for him to hear their conversation. Every sound felt loud in the clear, cold air.

"Finally that damned storm ended. Boris would be mad if we postpone his orders for much longer, weather against us or no." His accent and look seemed Japanese. Must be the reason why the obviously Russian man beside him did not converse with him in Bryan's mother tongue. The Asian had to formerly have been one of Voltaire's underlings.

"Agreed. Hopefully the bastards have yet to pass by our location, like the stupid superiors calculated, and we catch them by moving in from the front. They would be defenseless, since they only expect us to reach them from behind, and the slaughter will go easy." An old, Russian soldier, and a bastard of those. Bryan scowled at him through the naked branches, his teeth grit. "We are moving as soon as we can, though the weapons and ammo will be troublesome to carry around."

The proud Asian man straightened, seemingly disgusted by the other man's lack of will to work. He was polite, as a Japanese man was brought up to be. "We would be in trouble if the children showed ability to fight back and we had no weapons. What do you think the higher-ups would say if we lost? The rules are strict enough to get us killed for such a failure." He did what he could not to voice his disgust of the other's laziness. It was against his views.

The fact that the man snorted at his words only made it worse and the man moved towards a car to take something out. Then he turned around and watched the Japanese guy, looking incredibly amused. "You seriously think a bunch of untrained, green-assed 'warrior'-kids will win against highly trained soldiers like us, Kado?"

"Arakaki, please," the Japanese said, venom barely hidden in his voice. "Call me Arakaki."

The Russian simply smirked at him at turned away, finding and collecting a packed gun in the by the car. Bryan watched as the Japanese man came closer, standing just three feet away from the bush he sat behind. He looked very distressed, closing his eyes and bowing his head while resting it on the thumb and index finger of his one hand. The teenager sat extremely still, knowing the Asian did everything he could to keep his posture and that he was in danger of being caught.

Then he kicked at the snow. "Imaimashī teinō! (Damn morons!)" A shower of snow fell over Bryan, who did his best not to move. The longer the man stood there, the longer was he at risk of being seen. Luckily the man was outraged and inattentive, even if the kick had taken some of the fuel. "Watashi wa koko de mono o yatte iru? (What am I doing here?)" The emerald just listened to the muttered words, his toes curling as the man became calmer and aware.

He would be seen if he moved, and he became unnerved the more the man stood there. He saw the dark eyes focus on him for a second and knew he had been seen. He shot out of the bush and grabbed the man before pulling back, forcing them both through it. The man trashed for a moment, trying to voice the emergency, when a hand covered his mouth and he was forced into the snow, hands restrained. His enemy was stronger.

Bryan knew he could not be here anymore, could not leave the man alive and could not discard the body here. People had to have heard them, and if they found a dead comrade the hunt would be twice as intense if the enemy actually was not a lone, scared, helpless eavesdropper they regarded their enemies. A dead body meant a dangerous opponent.

Furthermore a living man could be easier to force with him than a dead, heavy body, and the tracks would be obviously if he had to drag him. He would have to move crouched and stealthily, too, if he wanted not to be seen over the bushes, but to drag a dead body forced him to stand or rustle the surroundings.

But leaving the man alive for now was tricky in itself. A dead body could be better than a struggling, living one. And a soldier was more able to fight than a puny teenager or a scientist with no experience in fighting. He seemed to be the stronger, but with friends of the enemy not far away the tables could turn with a single noise.

All these thoughts ran through his mind in less than a second and then he had the plan. Still with the hand to the man's mouth he moved a knee onto the hands he had captured and found the knife he used to kill his demon, the scientist, just the day before. He grabbed the wrist of one of the man's hands with the hilt of the knife resting on the palm of his own and moved off of him; staring at the stranger with eyes he hoped proved he was not afraid of the killing.

The man nodded slowly, making sure not to move too fast. You could never know what was found threatening. A hand was still left to cover his mouth while he was allowed to crawl on all fou- … eh, three, moving a bit clumsily do to the arm stiffly on his back with the knife's edge dangerously close to both his wrist and lungs.

The man was incredibly easy to guide, not struggling one bit. It was first when Bryan had gotten him to a tree line and they were out of sight he let the poor man stand, still a hand over his mouth and the knife in his back, the blade now lowered to his kidneys. The man did not even tremble, no look of fear on his face, not even in his eyes. It confused the teen for a second – and then he realized the Japanese was sure he would leave him still breathing.

They walk was quite until they had walked for about 600 feet. Then a root found its way to Bryan's foot underneath the snow and he tripped, the hand over the mouth slipping and the knife poking into the flesh of the captive. The Asian man gasped when the edge of the blade pierced his skin. "Черт (hell/damn)," the emerald mumbled as he regained his balance, and his hand moved back towards the others face again, trying to cover the mouth.

A hand smacked against his wrist, stopping him from getting too much power again. "Please," the man said, but he was far from begging. They were standing still for a moment. Then Bryan let his arm fall, and liked the smirk on the elder's face that was supposed to be hidden. The other found him naïve. A good thing. "Russian?" he then asked, looking the younger over as he kicked at the snow and recognized the traits of those damn Slavs he worked with.

"Tabun (maybe)," Bryan answered in Japanese, the accent nearly invisible. The smirk on the other's face turned into a smiled, and Bryan yanked him forward, forcing him to walk again. Until now he had walked directly behind him, matching his footprints in the snow to make it seem like there was only one, and he continued walking this way. "You are not going to scream for your friends?" he continued, not caring for the line of blood he saw on the man's clothes. So what if he was bleeding?

"First, it would be beneath me to call for help," he said. Too proud was all Bryan's mind could think. "Second, they are not my friends and very annoying, and since you have been sitting behind that bush for a long while you should know that."

"And so you break the vow you gave to your superiors?" Bryan mused, not getting it to fit his view on the man.

He heard the smile in the voice even if he could only see the back of his head. "I have taken no oath to those who are currently living. Voltaire was my man, and since he is dead I am no longer bound. And now you have even given me an excuse to get away, since I promise you I will be a very good prisoner."

Prisoner. It was true he may have a lot of information, but since he was no trusted man of Boris', it was possible he only knew of Voltaire. And the dead is not threat. The man could also lie – not to mention the fact Bryan would have been running without the man to find back to the camp so he could get their lazy butts moving.

And that was when he decided to discard the man as soon as he was turning up towards a place the hill that was still too steep smoothed enough for him to climb it. They were close enough to it for him to keep it in sight but far enough away for the Asian to be unaware of the real direction they were going. In case the man survived, it would be best.

A slight ache brought him back to awareness and he turned to look at his back in an attempt of finding the source. He caught a glimpse of red. Blood. He was bleeding from the stab he had suffered when the scientist attacked him. At the sudden realization of still being a human he remembered the nausea and headache he had had since he woke, and how his stomach wanted food while it twisted at the sheer thought of it. It angered him that his body did not just _listen_.

"Scheiße (shit)," he mumbled to himself as he turned back forward again, ignoring that blood because he could do nothing for it now and it was a weakness. His body had to cope until he got back to camp – if he got back to camp.

"Now I'm confused." He heard the mock in that voice. "Are you Russian, Japanese or German?"

"You know, I may not look like it, but I am actually a native citizen of Nigeria. My name is Ibukunoluwa," Bryan answered, not even noticing how his annoyed remark was kind of like a joke. Humor was not a strong side of the formerly emotionless boy, so even if he knew what was fun was supposed to be it was not what he normally used.

The Asian man said nothing to it, and Bryan was unable to determine if he was smiling. "Is that even a name?" the Asian finally blurted, sounding close to tears from suppress laughter. Bryan rolled his eyes and kept silent, not even wanting to answer. It seemed the elder of the two was having the fun of his month. The proud one was losing his posture.

He did not see Bryan as a threat.

The emerald orbs diverted to the side, towards the hill between him and the camp. The ground there seemed stable and possible to climb. It was time. "You know…" Acting. He played the teen that was unsure about his actions and needed guidance, but made sure some kind of authority – or whatever it was his held – was still in his voice. Too big a difference in personality would make him seem unreliable. "I could let you go. I think the rest would prefer that…"

Once again he was sure there was a smile somewhere but the man changed his way of acting, too, trying to be the adult able to give him that guidance he longed for. Except that he was changing a bit too much. "I would certainly appreciate that." The sweetness of his voice made Bryan's nausea even worse. "It is troublesome to have a prisoner, especially when you need to move fast. You are in a lot of trouble, with Boris' people at your heels, and I will just slow you down, even if I promise to be nice."

He was only stating the facts Bryan had already reached, but the conclusion he found in his mind was very different from the gray-haired teen's. Bryan tightened his grip on the man in false frustration and confusion before letting him go in mock kindness and trust. "Alright." He took out his knife and gave the man a threatening look. "I will let you go. But if you do something fishy I will not hesitate to kill you, even if it would be a waste of lives."

He motioned for the Asian to go away from the hill and the man silently obliged, a satisfied expression filling his face. He had tricked the child, he was absolutely certain he had tricked the child, but he was so dangerously wrong.

The man began walking through the undergrowth, away from him, and soon he was nothing but a shadow behind the trees in the early morning. You could only faintly see him move, see his head or arm or shirt through the leaves. The emerald found the gun in his pocket and checked the bullets, readied it and lifted it up before his eyes, aiming for where he knew the head of the man should be. Then he clicked the gun, making the final steps before firing.

In the silence of the frozen forest the click swiped past the trees and even reached the Japanese, causing him to turn around and look back towards his former captor in confusion. If Bryan strained his eyes he could see the face clearly behind the many leaves, see the frown, the sudden unease. Then he pulled the trigger.

Kado Arakaki never even saw the bullet come.

The sound of the firearm echoed through the forest like a messenger of his deed. The teen turned, moving casually onwards for a few 30 feet before turned and climbing the hill, his dizziness from fever making it harder than it should have been. The enemy had to have heard his gun, too, but they had two tracks to go for. Even if one track was only about 50 feet long the confusion of the tracks and then finding a dead friend hopefully slowed them down a bit.

Finally reaching the top Bryan ran, the snow slowing him just slightly as well and the pain from his bleeding wound and the sickness raging in his body. He was not sure of the route to the camp, but the general direction was well enough for him to risk the running. No matter how much he had tried to cause confusion the enemy would be at their heels in no time if they did not move. They had to move fast and do the impossible task of covering their tracks in the snow.

He reached his 'friends' faster than he would have hoped, not sure if his legs had simply carried him at incredible speed or if he had not moved that far from the camp. With slight pants he stopped by the edge, and a wary pair of neko-jin adults lifted their guns and swords at him. Bao was the first to recognize him, and a giant relief reached the man's face. A relief that frightened the teen _a lot_.

"We- we have to move." He was more out of breath than expected and his body had begun shivering in a mix of cold and exhaustion. He was far from healthy at the moment… No, that was an understatement. He was sick. Very sick. "Enemies are near. V-very near." The relief on the young neko's face turned into concern.

The men exchanged a few looks before the others began ordering the rest to continued getting ready to move out. Bao was the only one staying and he moved to Bryan with quick steps. "Are you okay?" he asked, a small frown on his face. "We… We heard a gunshot and decided it was dangerous to stay any longer." His hand crept around the teen's back only to cause them both to jump when his hand found the bleeding stab wound. "You are bleeding!"

After composing himself Bryan turned his green gaze to the man once more. "It was my gun. I killed one of the enemies in an attempt to make a decoy…" The man tried to lift his shirt to get a glimpse of his bleeding but Bryan slapped the hand away from him. "It is just the stab, nothing new. We have to get going. They are close and my tracks lead back to the camp. There is no time for checking wounds."

The hand gave up on his shirt and moved to his forehead instead, the physical signs of fever giving Bao an unnerving hint. His eyes widened a fear that made the teen even more uncomfortable. "Oh God, Bryan, you are burning up!" The concern was deepened. "The wound may have become infested."

"_Later!_" Bryan demanded, frustrated that the man did not understand the urgency. "The enemies have to have heard my shot, too, and they will be here soon. I do not care about that stupid wound." He kicked at the snow to get some of his anger out, but found it to be a very stupid thing when he nearly lost his balance. Why was his body so strange?

For the third time the hand interfered with his movements as it tried to steady him and he growled angrily. How could he be concerned about _him_ when they all were all going to be attacked and possibly killed? Bao was not convinced that the group was most endangered, though. He was worried about the teen's self-destructive behavior.

Very worried.

* * *

And then this chapter is done and I will attempt to write the next as soon as possible. Hopefully you still read this and do not feel that the standard in my work has dropped.

Just so you know, Ibukunoluwa actually IS a name from Nigeria, if it should help you in any way, shape or form.

Enjoy in joy ^^


	30. Timing?

So, it has been a looong time, and as so many others I will now apologize for the sheer lateness of this even though I am not sorry for the alternative. My depression is must now be as over as it can, for I have suddenly gotten a lot of friends and even more suddenly gotten into cosplay. Hetalia, it must be admitted, but I have become a part of a cosplay group and have been a part of two or three CMVs – and will be continuing to do that. But Hetalia has become my obsession and will probably keep my mind occupied, so while I struggle getting this done I fear I will be updating TSSS more…

Disclaimer: See former chapters

Warnings: See former chapters

Reviews:

babydragonXXX: Thanks for another review and for you being so understanding ^^ It has been so long that I cannot remember if I already answered you review, but now I answer you anyway. I'm very sorry if the sentence-structure made it hard to read and destroyed some of the flow and I hope this is better – I have tried to look it through better so I hope you have a better experience this time. And that you even read it after it has been so awfully long. Thanks for the review, it always helps!

RavenSakura5000: Yaaay, cookies! *grabs them and hugs them and eats them* Anyway, I'm very happy you liked it and I hope you find this one of your liking as well ^^ About the sentence structure, it seems to have been bad in this one and I apologize if it was very bad. About Bryan, though, I'm happy you like him. He is an interesting character in my point of view and I have just tried to make him as I would imagine him to be. I agree with you about his time in the spotlight, though. He gets so little time and people rarely seem to think anything more of him. Spence has it worse off, though. They are all very interesting, not only Tala and Kai.

kai and tala: I have now and I hope you continue reading even though it has been long. Thanks for your review ^^

And with that it is simply for you to read what art I have tried to create. Here you go…

* * *

Timing?

* * *

The camp was breaking up once more, and this time no vicious wind stopped them. There was a peace in the air, as though the wind had blown all troubles away. It was one of the few times in this troublesome year they believed in the possibility of survival. The storm had erased their fear and only a small group of people who always had trouble felt unnerved – but even for them it was not the outer enemy but inner qualms they cared for.

Of course this was Kai and his likes. The trouble about his father was not subsiding. Kai personally continued to feel regret and shame for leaving him alone and denying him, but at the same time his logical part attempted to convince him that it was not his fault and that he owed the man nothing. Tala, on the other hand, was trying to cope with the fact that a man he had longed to kill his whole life was currently lying peacefully in their camp as an honored guest.

The only thing keeping Susumu Hiwatari alive were Xiu's plea and the fear in the redhead telling him that somewhere deep inside, Kai actually held feelings for the man he wished was not his father. He had just lost another family member, a grandfather he had hated, and he had reacted more forcefully and with more emotion than anyone had ever seen. The still healing wound on Tala's stomach proved it and it was an experience not worth repeating.

It had become harder to read the slate after he had lost his voice. Normally you would have been able to determine his mood by the amount of words he used in a certain situation, as well as the concentration of his silences. Now he never spoke, and his current mental situation made the weight of the silences constant and hard.

He had always been hard to understand, but he had never been totally unreadable.

Said teen was currently helping out collecting the tent he had shared with the remaining Blitzkrieg Boys and girl, his every move used to show how he ignored the skeletal man standing on the side of the clearing using a tree to hold him upright. His body was still not strong enough to support the scarce weight he had, but that did not make his gaze any lighter. Even if he had not inherited the 'Hiwatari glare' the crimson eyes still held some intensity.

The longing in those eyes was blocked by the mind of the younger Hiwatari. He knew it was there, but he denied it.

The hostility of the redhead was expressed in a very different way, however. Whenever he noted the man moving his gaze diverted towards him, sending shards of invisible icicles at him. It was better than trying to kill him but even the simple knowledge of his abilities was enough for the adult to fear him. The only way he could survive – could he even survive this in his condition, frail and barely living? – was if the redhead kept his rage in check.

He knew he deserved nothing more than what both children gave him, but that did not stop him from being grateful for the peace he was offered.

Susumu was unable to help them with their packing due to not even being able to stand on his own, and from his place on the far side of the clearing he was the first to hear it. Moving and shuffling of snow and small twigs as well as a few dry leaves. Something was moving, and moving fast. A slight panic reached his abdomen, clouding his mind and thoughts. He had to do something, he knew he had.

He pushed himself away from the trunk of the tree in an instinctual reaction and he found himself on his hands and knees in the snow his next conscious second. Even the single, failed step was enough to get him out of breath and his voice was so weak. Damn his body, damn his father and damn Boris for following orders. "H-hey…"

His voice was still just that small whisper, but his trained and still properly working ears told him the strangers were getting closer at a frighteningly high speed. Alarmed eyes darted for the nearest people, but even they were too far away to hear – and none of them liked him. "H-hey… HEY!" His voice was suddenly found and people turned to him, getting surprised by his sudden position and frowning for the same reason. And because he sought attention.

The look in his eyes alarmed those with the knowledge of fighting that there actually was something more wrong.

Tala was the first to react and reached for the gun as his side. The click him readying it was all the rest needed to find the own, Kai on the verge of moving forward to protect his helpless father but his logic fighting off those unnecessary and annoying feelings. It was Maxim who moved to the Japanese man instead, grabbing the frail man's torn, dirty shirt unceremoniously and dragging him behind him like he was nothing but a limp doll.

The last thing they needed right now was to fight, their untrained members having no plan to follow. They were too few to meet anyone head on, but the slaughter would be even worse if they turned around and fled while the enemy could simply shoot them down. Not that the current option was much better, but their chance was bigger if the enemy did not expect it. And they expected their enemy to expect nothing.

A shuffling of leaves made them grip their weapons tighter and those with less experience in fighting had found their guns and knives and whips. The unease and controlled panic kept going a little while longer when someone burst through the naked branches. The sight that met him made him stop and they watched each other for a moment longer before another neko-jin came within sight, and then a teen they knew as Garland.

"Friends," Maxim announced to those who may be too panicked to see this themselves. He secured the gun and let it fall before getting a little more comfortable grip on the frail Hiwatari, letting him rest with an arm over his shoulder and leaning onto his body. More people got through the bushes and Maxim was soon flabbergasted. It seemed half of those they had lost had somehow found together. "Just how many are you?"

"A few," a man beside Garland answered while the martial artist worked twigs out of his long hair.

Kai moved closer and watched them silently. He felt like he was the only one noting just how out of breathe these people were. They had been running, not travelling – _running_. They were not the enemy… but how far was the enemy when they acted like this? How much time did they have when? And how many fiends waited behind?

He wanted to say this, wanted to ask, wanted to get the answer, but he did not have the voice to say it. But he knew they needed to know. He knew they were in danger, no matter how much this happy reunion made them forget. For this reason he took it upon him to destroy their uneasy happiness. "…Wh-wha-?"

"Why have they stopped?" Recognizing the voice Kai spun around, meeting the sight of the missing member of the living Blitzkrieg Boys. But the sight was… not as reassuring as he would have thought. The normally burly and physically steady teen was unsteady, looking on the verge of falling apart. He was shivering harshly and still that determined look was in his face when he had gotten an order or figured out a decision.

A moment later another neko-jin emerged from the forest, and to Kai's surprise the man put a hand on the hardy teen without getting shrugged off immediately. "We have to keep moving," the man demanded, and it seemed Bryan finally decided to move the hand away, finally noticed it. He was about to say something when his eyes finally found the slate.

He stopped speaking as the green eyes continued their search. The gray hair clung to the cold sweat of sickness on his forehead and made his condition look even worse, and yet the eyes managed to remove some of the obvious signs of unhealth from him when they lightened in a pure bliss one would have thought impossible to see on him.

The slate did not even have to turn to know what he had seen, and he got his assumption confirmed when lightning of red and purple flew past him, the team of the Abbey-boys finally finding each other again. A spark of hope flittered through his chest and his eyes moved over the crowds assembling, even his own cool and his always nagging fears dissolving for a second. Tyson… Rei… His eyes flew over the crowds, but he did not find what he had begged for.

He pushed his sadness away to find out what was happening, and the things happening always found its way to the Blitzkrieg Boys. He passed by Maxim and his father, the soldier having engaged a conversation with a pair of the adults with the starved man still hanging on his shoulder. The man who had formerly been allowed to touch Bryan's shoulder was still around close to him, his face showing a concern Kai was unable to fit anywhere.

"Stop doing that," he heard Tala complain when the gray-haired moved around him to get a closer look and make sure he had come to no harm. The slate noted how the blue eyes of the Russian redhead sought his teammate over as well, once again letting worry flood into those orbs, and how even the smallest of them found it in his heart to care so much he did not proceed with their normal, half-violent greetings.

One of Tala's slim hands grabbed Bryan's shoulder to prevent him from continuing his survey of his condition. That was a feat only the redheaded captain could accomplish, but when his other hand flew up towards his face and touched his cheek not even he was able to keep it there and the gray-haired teen moved his face away. "Please no, Tala," the one who normally always agreed with his actions begged.

"You are sick," Tala stated from what brief contact his palm had made with the other's face. Kai snorted at the obviousness of the words and turned his gaze from Bryan, who was visibly shivering from something more than cold and seemed to tumble if the wind became too hard, and over to the neko-jin man beside him.

His gaze was seen as hostile and the man raised his hands in an attempt of showing peace. "I have nothing more to do with his condition than being unable to control him," he said, his sharp fangs showing a little whenever he opened his mouth. He reminded Kai a painful lot of his neko-jin-friend who was still missing.

"I would not be surprised." The voice of the redhead was sharp, angered, the blue eyes narrowed, and he looked quite ready to slap the bigger teen. "I would not be surprised if he neglected himself to get back to me. He is still relying too much on my well-being. What if I die, Bryan?" the redhead continued, his voice back to worrying. Bryan was so surprised he stumbled backwards, his eyes widening. "What will you do – what will to you happen, if I am gone?"

The sick teen struggled to find his voice, much like Kai normally did. "Y-you… T-Tala, _you will not die_," he nearly ordered his captain, doing nothing but making the redhead's concern grow tenfold. The green eyes were so terrified at the thought of losing him that the feeling was spreading to the rest of them – especially Tala. The captain suddenly looked so fearful the slate felt annoyed and he took a step forwards to flick Bryan's forehead, making him blink.

It had the effect it needed. Bryan came out of the spiral of scaring thoughts he had obviously been caught in and Tala got offended of his teammate's behalf. "Hey!" the redhead said and received the same treatment as the other by the slate. When the blue orbs met the violet, no words from the mute were necessary. That look said everything.

'Stop acting like a mother hen and be the leader I am no longer able to be.'

The redhead gave a small nod to show he had understood and followed the slate's gaze to the neko standing just behind Bryan. "And you are?" the redhead asked Kai's question for him, making sure the necessary things would be accomplished. They had to find out the situation. It seemed dangerous, and continued to be dangerous if they lost track of things. They were surprised when they got their answers, and it was not the words that surprised them.

It was the one who said the words. "His name is Baojia." It was Bryan. A person who always noted what the whole world was, but never who they were. Threat or no, enemy or no, useful or no. He was impersonal, and this had not changed since he had recollected his feelings. And yet he knew this man's name. "I encountered a group of enemies," he then continued, finally picking up the pace. His sickness made him seem slow. Seem different, more fragile.

More human.

"They were only five cars full, but it is easy to believe there are more. They had walkies and high-tech equipment, are generally very well armed, and since I more or less fell into the middle of it I had no way to hide my tracks. They are coming, and they are most likely coming fast." Despite the swaying and the shivering Bryan was still sharp.

There was a slight coughing and they turned their attention to Bao. "Is it possible for me to get you to sit down and take a rest somewhere?" he asked the teen politely. An amused smile reached the faces of both Ian and Tala.

"No," Bryan answered curtly, causing the man to frown in a mix of confusion and annoyance. The look on the other Abbey-boys' faces didn't help his bafflement.

"Bryan, do as he says," Tala said, and the emerald eyes turned from the adult to the teen before seeking the ground. A snort passed his nostrils, but he moved away anyway, not seeing the short, concerned look on the faces of those he departed when he nearly tripped over the snow. Then Tala remembered the amusement and turned to the man again, smiling at the bemused look he received. "If you want to get him to do something you need to make it an order, not a request," the redhead advised. "He does not move just because you inquire that he should. You act like an underdog."

"And I guess it is a bad thing for one who has learned to follow orders only," the man nodded, his eyes falling of the sick one before turning back to the group. "I believe he has an infected wound and that the inflammation is spreading, but he has been too concentrated on moving to listen to me." Tala opened his mouth to say something, but the man waved him off. "Yes, I know. Inquiring. He told me the enemy had picked up our track even before we got to move."

Kai's eyes twitched and he attempted to curse. The only thing left of the damn in his mind was a snarling "drouhg", but they all got the meaning. No wonder Bryan had been stressed. Normally he did not care for himself, but in a situation as stressed as this of course he would ignore all signs of personal danger. But even more importantly they had to collect their things and flee fast.

Tala turned around to announce the news just when he heard Maxim do exactly the same. "The enemy is behind us and they have found our tracks. We will have to move now, and do it fast. Pick up the things and get moving as fast as you can, but make sure that we keep together. Keep calm and avoid panic." The panic he was trying to avoid grew in most eyes around him. The day had seemed so peaceful. They were not ready to run for their lives.

The first to recover from the shock had only barely collected themselves enough to grab a bag before another voice cut in and made them have to rethink the decision made for them. "And do what, then? Continue to run with them at your heels only to be caught at the first rest you will be needed to take? They have the technology to catch you." The voice was barely more than a whisper. A whisper like the wind, bringing a message they had long denied.

All eyes turned back to Maxim, but it was not he who their eyes sought. It was the walking skeleton, the man they could not trust, but his words brought doubt in them nonetheless. His eyes went past them, though, and met the eyes of his son, the violet orbs throwing bolts of fire at him. There was a plea in his eyes, and that was what forced logic into the mind of the slate. If you can call the voice in his head logic, that is.

_Oh, look, his eyes are all sincere and begging. How pitiful. Do you think he really means it, Kai? Do you think he is actually right? For I could have told this fleeing is totally meaningless long ago…_ The voice was mocking and very sarcastic, the dark bitbeast clearly amused. It enjoyed this, it seemed, this problem with a parent, this hurtful, stressed and heartbreaking situation. It loved to feel his emotions, to feel how helpless he was under the weight of feelings.

'Shut it,' Kai demanded, but the words brought him out of the pure anger that formerly clouded his mind, cut it to pieces like a silver-blade. What would they gain from running? They would only become more exhausted, would they not? It might be better to meet them now, with the enemies thinking them weak and unready. Untrained children and exhausted soldiers too fearful to be a problem.

They _were_ untrained children and all of them were exhausted, tired and more or less starving, but they could make a surprise-attack. They should not expect that… maybe…

_Just get on with it, you agree with him anyway. Quit stalling._

The slate could not even manage snap at the creature. It was right, no matter how it annoyed him. He heard it chuckle when it picked up those thoughts, a satisfied, tingling feeling filling his stomach, making him share the vicious joy of the dark bitbeast. It was nice, making his head feel light and spinning comfortably as if he was influenced by drugs.

He shook his head as to clear his thoughts, the chuckling in his head growing, and then sent an elbow into the ribs of the redhead. He knew they were thinking quite alike. If he could get Tala out of his anger. Until now the blue eyes had flung shards of invisible ice at the man for the small crime of drawing attention to himself, and at the sudden sting in his ribs his head snapped around, the frost in his eyes momentarily directed towards the slate.

The empty stare of the other brought him back the same way as Black Dranzer had done for Kai, forcing reason into his mind that was otherwise closed. The slate saw the same travel of emotions in the blue eyes, from doubt to hesitation to realization to determination. Tala turned his head back and looked at the man he hated once more, a fight with his own feelings raging in his mind as he opened his mouth to speak.

"Do you have a plan?"

The younger Hiwatari smiled, the other voicing the question he had wanted asked. Most of the people in the group had been in doubt the same way as the two teens had experienced, and like the two teens the small acceptance of the idea made it possible for them to consider it. But it also brought fear in the heart of most. It meant they had to fight, and they did not feel ready. Would they ever be ready? Some of them were going to die.

The skeletal man nodded, the action weak as though he was afraid to lose his head fully. That he would not be able to lift it again if he did it too fast. "Yes. We split up. And ambush them." Muttering filled the air after the words of that weak voice came out to the physical world. Splitting up? Splitting up would make them weaker, would it not? "There is more to it," the whisper promised, the man slumped against the Russian soldier closing his eyes tiredly. "But it is dangerous and requires a lot of timing."

* * *

They had not had enough time in spare to go over the plan a lot. The exhausted man had shared his thoughts with them, his voice growing fainter and fainter the more he stood. The pale skin of his bones paled more the longer they continued, and yet the man found a way to finish it all before his body finally gave in.

It required every ounce of willpower and a bit more for the Tala to actually listen and let the plan evolve in his mind, but he managed. They decided to split into three groups, a suggestion from Susumu, and drew a map in the snow to show the roads of each group to everyone in the camp. Their final destination was to their current left, collecting all groups into one for the final attack. If anyone sidetracked or lost their way they all would most likely be dead.

Group 1 should reach the place after a walk of about ten minutes and be fast to get ready for an ambush. They were also the ones who brought the baggage so the others would not be slowed down. With the shortest walk and the longest rest they could best afford to lose a bit of time, as long as the enemy did not come too soon.

The second group went directly ahead only to swerve to the left and meet Group 1 at their location approximately twenty minutes later. They should walk in a half-circle and reach Group 1 from the right, arriving from the opposite direction. They should get there a few minutes before the enemy if the plan should go ideally, but as long as they arrived before it should go well. Should. A nice word, right?

Group 3 should be in the area, constantly moving, but far away from the sight of the fight and without crossing their own path – and they should still be within earshot. The enemy should be able to feel their presence but unable to reach them or shoot them. As soon as they heard the sound of the fighting, or the slaughter if it went perfectly, they should go running for place of the ambush and hopefully lead the last part of the enemy into the same trap.

Needless to say that Group 3 was in the biggest risk of death.

All these plans and thoughts could easily be destroyed and would be if the enemy decided to follow the trail of only one group. They had a chance of killing without having too many wounded if they did not have to kill too many at a time, and it was this fact that made them split up.

The only reason they decided to kill at all was the frustrating helplessness in having to flee once more. What would they accomplish by continuing? It was so… so _empty_. No matter how much they feared this, how some part of their mind was screaming to them that flight was the only way, this was better than the scaring, empty, _helpless_ unknown.

So it had been decided, this little spring of a plan that would be both dangerous and drastic had been decided upon, and now Bryan was apart from his captain once more. He had asked to be with him at first, then begged, mentioning that they had only just found each other again. Tala had laughed and said he sounded like they were some idiotic victims of an impossible, ever 'romantic' love-tragedy. Giving up on that one Bryan pleaded him to not be in Group 3. He was denied of that as well.

They had had nothing to argue about if it was not for Tala demanding him to be in the first group and get his stupid wound treated. Bryan did not mind the redhead being in danger – he just wanted to be close to him while he was. The redhead had disagreed. Not in his wish to be with him, but in his complaint about being treated. But even his words mentioning that it would be impossible for Bryan to protect him if the idiot (a direct quote) died were unable to reach.

And so the fevered, trembling gray-haired teen found himself utterly alone among those of Group 1, Ian in Group 2 and Kai with Tala in Group 3. Katyenka was here, and Baojia had decided to stay at his side like he was some weakling you had to take care of. The whole situation annoyed Bryan. He had not even been a part of the planning of the assault because the wanted him to _rest_. Most of the trembling, he told himself, came from rage building up inside.

They were nearly ready now, their bags and bundles hidden in the snow or beneath thick branches of evergreens and pines. Weapons had been readied and simple stones had been found, all of it getting bound by pieces of tarpaulin and dragged to the tops of trees. Tracks were getting created to be as confusing as possible.

Everyone was working hard – all but Bryan, who sat on a stone, scowling at their work simply because no one let _him_ work. Katyenka, the one in the group with most knowledge of medicine, had promised him that she would be by him as soon as she knew the others could work by themselves. The teen had thought long ago that they had reached that point, but he was fully satisfied with her staying as far away as possible.

If you have not come to this conclusion yet, I will inform you that Bryan was fuming.

Bao decided to come at sit by his side at this moment. A thoughtful expression reached his face as he tried to read the pale face of the teen, but it seemed he was out of luck on that. He could only decipher one thing – anger. It took him a moment to guess the source of the anger, and he ended up just flinging out words when the moment of guessing was in vain for a few moments too long. "What is it about you and letting others take care of you?"

Even if it was nothing but a shot in the dark it was a good shot. It hit very close to the bullseye and Bryan even had to flinch away at his words. The silence reigned for a moment, the teen trying to throw the question away with his usual, unresponsive behavior. Unfortunately the neko-jin was beginning to understand him and his tactics. Before long the aura sent from the adult forced Bryan to answer. "It is just unnecessary. There are more important things than me."

A dry laugh erupted beside him. "If you say so." The tone told the teen the man was not convinced, but he himself was unconvinced, too. He just thought other things were more important and should be done first. So what if his balance was failing and his arms were shaking, he was still strong enough to move around.

The green-eyed woman turned her gaze towards them as silence spread once more, and with long, fast strides she came over to them. "You…" Katyenka tried to remember his name for a moment. "Baojia, right?" A sigh of relief escaped her lips when she received a nod and she went beside them, settling on the other side of the teen. She knew better than getting affected by the glare the teen sent her and continued to concentrate of the man. "Would you take control over my work with the group?" she asked.

The other adult watched the teen for a moment before shaking his head, the look the younger gave Katyenka worrying him. "I would rather stay here," he announced, and the woman shrugged at his words. The others looked like they were working perfectly fine without her, so he would not even be needed.

"As you wish. Bryan, I will ask you to remove your shirt." The teen continued his glare, not moving and inch. The Russian woman sat for a while, her lips twitching while contemplating whether she should be amused or annoyed with the child. "You will get even worse if you continue like this. The fever will intensify and the infection will spread. What will anyone gain from that?"

She had told him nothing he was not aware of and he just continued to stare at her, his eyes narrowing slightly. With a final snort to state his anger he turned his back to her, in this movement turning to the neko-jin man, and lifted his shirt to show the stab in his lower back. The shirt stuck to the flesh, thick, yellow liquid flowing out of the wound.

He did not see her frown or the sudden worry growing in her face. He did not see how her hands hovered over her equipment for a moment as if unable to decide exactly was she had that could help. His back was to her.

But, he did see her worry reflect in Bao's face and knew what it meant. "Bad?" he asked, and he even had a small degree of smugness in his voice. As if the bad state of his body was his victory over the annoying adults. It was childish, very childish, yet he had had no real childhood as all. How could you blame him?

"Yes," she answered while she readied her antibiotics on a cloth that might have been clean once. Now it was dirty and moist by earth, snow and primitive survival, but hygiene was a luxury they could not afford at the moment. It was better than nothing, and nothing was the only thing they could give him in its stead. "You have become better at controlling your emotions," she suddenly said. "I heard you became quite… forceful before."

Somehow the praise stuck into him. A little flush of light tickling his insides with warmth. Anger was extinguished by that relaxing heat and Bryan delved in the comfort of the feeling, going deep inside his happiness. So deep that he jumped when the dampened cloth hit the infected wound, and with was not because of the pain her light touches gave him. She stopped momentarily, afraid that it was her treatment affecting him.

He just continued to sit unresponsively for a moment as if her words had put him into shock. "Th-… thank you…" he finally said, his voice choking. This was a new way of reacting, something he had never tried before, and for once he did not have to ask Tala what it was. He thought, he was quite sure, that it was some kind of gratitude. "Just… go on, please. It does not hurt." The wound did hurt, but he still – mostly – found pleasure in his pain.

The two adults shared a look of confusion. He had changed so… suddenly; it was scary. His voice held no trace of the annoyance that was formerly residing within him, the praise leaving no mark of it. For a moment they could not understand… and then Bao caught up. Unlike common belief of him not caring about his lack of control in the least he had been afraid. Probably not for himself but for what he attacked – who he attacked. If he harmed Tala.

Not to mention that he normally did not get praise. He just did his job, did it well, and everyone expected him to do it without noticing. After they had found his usefulness they had decided to let him stay with them. When that was done and forgotten the only thing they noted was how dangerous, uncontrolled, unmannered he was, for doing his job was not something he did. It was who he was. It was so much _him_ that you forgot the uniqueness of his abilities, the incredible speed of his calculations, how he sometimes even protected _them_, the ones he did not feel obliged to.

He had been made, both he and the scientist had told. He had been made, created by the command of a monster, to use the abilities he had been born with for the gain of the evil. For the first time Bao saw more than the dangerous teen he had somehow come to care about and he was forced to wonder: What person would that kid have been if evil had never caught him, _created_ him?

"You… are welcome," Katyenka said, finding her voice again. She still had a look of wonder on her face, proving that she had no idea where the thanks had its root, and so she just continued her work with his wound. That look of worry came back as she examined the slit. "It is deep, right?" She received a nod from the Chinese and frowned even worse. "I… think it could require a little more… extensive treatment. The inflammation is bad and has settled inside.

A doctor would normally cut into the infected tissue and remove it, and for your sake I would like to do the same. I just have little official education in helping people, so I may be unable to do the… 'surgery' properly, even if I had the necessary tools. I will give you no guarantee. So you will have to decide whether or not you will have me…"

The snort had been in his nostrils for quite some time before it came out; the sound having grown ever since he had realized what she was beginning to say. "Just get it done. Though this is not the time for it. I have to be aware when we attack them. It is my duty to fight." Have to. I have to. It is my duty. There is no other choice.

Bao narrowed his eyes, the words of the teen burning into his mind. Just like he had only just understood the sadness of the teen's faith he now realized just how much energy it required to keep the kid alive. He did not look out for himself, his training once again becoming dangerous for himself. He had been disciplined to extreme selflessness; so extreme that only a ruthless man with no care for the child's life could be satisfied with it.

It was the reason it was impossible to trust Bryan, too. The selflessness was especially addressed to only a small few, Tala being the only one Bao currently knew of. You could not know what he did for those people, what he lied about, what danger he put himself and the ones not in his narrowed view to protect a single person. And with such a crucial role in the survival of the groups every lie he held was dangerous.

"It is not your responsibility, Bryan," he could not help but mumble, a sting of concern as well as distrust forcing itself upon him. It was a very mixed pair of feelings and what was supposed to be a reassuring smile became a twisted grimace, causing him to force it away again before the teen took notice.

The grimace was replaced by an amused smile when the teen rolled his eyes. "I will decide what my responsibility is and what is not." Despite everything he is becoming more and more human for each day. This observation, more than anything, brought Bao the wish to protect him.

A sign from another member of Group 1 caught their attention, and Katyenka's mouth became a thin line on her pale face. With narrowed eyes she stood, her cloth leaving his wound for a time. "We have to get out of sight," she said, her eyes wandering to the trees. "They are ready and we have yet to finish up our work," she said, and she did not look pleased. As they had planned the others were already climbing the trees, following advised patterns to make their moves concealed despite the annoying snow.

Bryan followed the moves of the rest and nodded upwards. "Climb the trees. You can continue up there." The teen could see them be about to argue long before he even finished the sentences and therefore rose and grabbed the branch of the nearest tree before they could say anything. With that incredible strength of his he pulled himself upwards and swung a leg over one part of it, not caring for the pain jolting through him, originating from his wound, or how his sickness immediately made him out of breath.

"That is not healthy for you," Katyenka scolded, but it was for deaf ears. Seeing his unchanging expression she sighed and both adults followed him in the climb of the naked oak. "Yeah, we will take care of you up there, then," she muttered, irritation in her voice but hidden in her face. Bryan passed nine branches before settling on a thick one a few feet from the trunk, extending a hand to help the elder up, too.

After the two adults had settled behind him the only noise in the forest came from the female soldier finding her medicaments once more. For newbies Bryan noted them to be good at stillness – maybe an effect of having been the hunted for over a year now. His body tensed for a moment when her cloth touched his wound again, but relaxed as soon as he had adjusted to the feeling. Her dark green eyes narrowed again.

"I would normally have you take some pills, but… I have none…" He turned his head towards her, shifting in his seat on the branch, but she turned his head forward again. "As long as your back is connected to your neck I dare you to move it," she told him threateningly before looking through her bag of medical-supplies. "If you can allow it I will give you a shot instead," she continued, finding a needle and trying to give it to him over his shoulder.

A sharp, thick needle, long and looking absolutely uncomfortable.

But he waved it off, her attempt to warn him about the size and form in vain. "Go on." And she did so, her hand steady as she disinfected the metal even if she was about to insert it into another human being. The steadiness seized when the needle was inserted and the liquid was pressed inside of him. Her eyes widened in shock and surprise.

No reaction had come from his body. No tensing, no moving, nothing. Other people would have squirmed and tried to hide their how uncomfortable they were, but here there had been no reaction. He had been so absolutely unresponsive that, even knowing who she was treating, it sent shivers down her spine.

She was about to say something to ease the uncomfortable feeling she had, but Bao made a move behind her to make her quiet. They had all lost their track of time during her inspection of his wound and now they could hear the sound of rustling in the bushes. At first Bryan thought it to be the next group coming to them, and the sound came from the right side, too… but then he heard rustling on his other as well. Then his body did what a needle was unable to cause.

It tensed and shivered, the knowledge of danger and destruction of timing falling down his back like icy water. His eyes flashed to one side, then the other, and then saw the first person from the second group coming through the undergrowth, the person looking to the ground to make sure they were the right place. He seemed… confused.

The rustling to the wrong side stopped for a moment while more people from the other side arrived. Knowing the enemy was so close while they were freely in sight was dangerous for the whole operation and Bryan was trying to find the best solution. But his calculations became unnecessary when another person of their group decided to do something about the upcoming chaos – and make it a little bit worse.

The first enemy came through the bush and was startled at the sight of the ones in Group 2. At the same time a male teen in Group 1 could no longer handle the tension and yelled down to their allies, "we're up here," not realizing the position of the enemy. The green eyes widened when hearing this, and he could hear the enemy readying for battles in the silence where only wind and the echo of the idiot's voice. Danger. Bad. This was bad.

Bryan flung his leg over the branch, getting ready to climb down, but before even getting off the first branch a sudden pain erupted near the left side of his neck. He lifted his hand, knowing what this pain meant, and he felt the fingers of another person. He never even got time to pry at them before he felt darkness pressing onto him and clouding his eyes. The last thing he noted was falling, falling down, and then feeling something around his waist…

* * *

Gunshots. A lot of gunshots.

Kai's head snapped to the side, towards the sound, and his eyes narrowed slightly. It had started like it was supposed to, so why did he feel this unease? His eyes darted to Tala, both of them continuing with fast strides to keep the enemy at bay. He caught the other's eyes for a moment and saw what he had feared he would.

The blue orbs were widened slightly, him also feeling that something was wrong. It did not sound like a slaughter but a real fight – and to win it had to be a slaughter. They had the enemy close behind them, just out of sight, but their opponents seemed to have stopped. "We… We have to turn around. If nothing else, then to help." Kai nodded and looked at the people beside him, the others in their group, the others racing in their dangerous game with the foes.

_You will die if you go there._

'We will see about that,' he grumbled back in his mind, and he felt how the beast tried to take control over his mind, tried to force him to turn around and flee instead. He blocked it out, but felt how its influence slowed his own movements. 'What the hell do you want?!'

_I cannot use you if you are dead._

Use you. Use you. It was his goal in life to be used, it seemed… It was all everyone wanted, anyway…

He was brought back to the when Tala grabbed his shirt and dragged him to the side, over towards the shooting. The snow crunched beneath his feet, the white layer revealing gray prints, tattling of their movements. The shots echoed between the tall, naked trunks, the spruces standing out like fat people in a crowd. He passed one and felt a sudden urge to jump to the side, behind one of the big, green giants, dragging the redhead with him.

The tree not far in front of them splintered, a piece of the trunk suddenly cut apart. A bullet – not the first they had faced in this hunt, but it was the closest nonetheless. "Thanks," Tala breathed through the pants before running again and now it was him dragging the other by the metal-arm, not even giving the slate time to shake his head.

For it was not Kai who had save them – he had saved Tala, but it had only been because of someone… something… else. 'Thanks…' he hesitantly thought to the beast sneaking around in his mind, knowing that it was the one putting the sudden paranoia in his body. He had dragged the redhead – but the beast had dragged him.

It was a relief when the black phoenix kept silent and he continued to run beside his fellow captain, the sound of guns getting louder. Yes, something was definitely wrong. The shooting should have silenced by now, or at least gotten less intense. Fear had a hold in both him and the redhead, but they did not fear their own lives. Others were fighting and dying, and these others had little-to-none experience in fighting compared to the two of them.

They reached the place of fighting fast – a little too fast. They were met by chaos when they arrived, bullets flying both up towards the sky and towards them as the enemy tried to keep both the ones in the trees and the ones on the ground off. The people in Group 2 were fighting for their lives as they had the enemy in front of them, the ones who had followed the tracks of the first group, and behind them, the ones who had followed them.

When Kai saw this he realized they had just brought even more chaos into the battlefield – behind them were another group of enemies. He looked at Tala, patted his shoulder and caught his eyes, but then saw that the redhead, in the faint panic he felt, had yet to realize their personal attribution to this madness.

Not having time to force the words out with his uncooperative tongue he just shook his head, forced the redhead to face forward while he himself turned to watch the ones behind them. He readied the gun and heard the other do the same, for even if Tala did not know what the slate was going on about he knew they were fighting. Back to back they raised their guns and when he saw a rustling of leaves Kai shot, a scream coming from that direction.

He heard the redhead fire behind him and then felt a tug on his shoulder as the other leaned on to him. Instinctively knowing what it meant he moved to the side of the shoulder the very second to felt the push of the other, turning around while doing so with the redhead constantly right on his back, now facing away from the foes they had fled from. A bullet flew past them where they had stood before, but neither cared, both in the mind of the elite soldiers they had been trained to from very young.

He closed his bad eye and shot once more, this time towards a man about to choke a neko-jin man with a foot on his throat, and was about to signal the redhead to swirl another time when a man aimed at them. It proved unnecessary when the foe was hit in the head by a bullet, blood exploding from in his skull as the projectile flew right through. A moment Kai looked for his savior and got the glimpse of a rustling bush before he was signed to swirl again.

When he stood still once more and had sent a bullet to the throat of a man his eyes darted to the bush again, and he got the glimpse of the barrel of a rifle and then a glimpse of crimson. A man laid only two feet from the barrel, a big man in a uniform, lying face down and totally still, but Kai let it be when he heard a hiss from the teen behind him.

His bad eye snapped open at the sound and he turned his head to the side, only barely able keep his attention to the battle. If something had happened it was dangerous for both of them. "Wh-wrr-…" he began, but his tongue did not agree to help him and the word was left unsaid.

Of course Tala knew what he wanted to know and answered. "Lost the gun – a bullet passed over my knuckles and it flung away." Damn. "I take the whip instead, but you will have to keep me safe until I have a gun." You are stating the obvious. The slate took another shot, the made a sign to the other to go to the side, stopping him from talking for a moment as they moved. "To my left," the redhead then ordered and both took a roll to that side, bullets flying past.

Kai heard the snap of the whip when they were back on their feet once more and flinched at the agonized scream that followed. Another snap, this one of harder material, spoke of a broken bone – maybe even a neck – and the scream was silenced. That was Tala's 'favorite tactic' when fighting with the whip.

A bullet he had not noticed flew towards the slate's face and by instinct he lifted his arms to block it from both him and the redhead. A ring of metal brought a sudden calm over him, promising him that it was not been a mistake. The hard metal of his false arm had saved him – the irony was both sweet and bitter, but he could not complain. A shoulder leaning onto his told him to turn the same way they had done before, and facing back the way he came Kai got a short look at the man Tala had just attacked.

The head hung limply to the side in an angle that would have made Kai choke if he attempted to copy it. Killed. Dead.

He flashed to attention again when another man – an enemy – came into his sight. The gun flashed towards him, but he was the faster. Behind him the whip sounded again, its movements faster than the bullets could fly. He has to find a gun, Kai thought while he pushed the trigger again and once more, but with the current chaos it is impossible to find a safe second to grab it. Had the times been different Tala would have been the most dangerous fighter in the field. But the enemy had guns, and guns beat closer range weapons by far…

The heavens made an angel roll up beside them and Kai was just about to kill it when he saw the big nose and that purple hair. Ian had found them, probably following the snaps of the whip, and when they noticed him they changed formation, allowing him to be their extra eye and hands.

"Have an extra gun?" Tala asked, through the yells and bullets.

"Of course I have." Anything would be a surprise, shrimp. The little collection of metal changed hand just before they made a roll to the side, three moving as one, and the whip was back in the redhead's belt by the time they were standing again. "What happened to your own?"

"Hand got scraped, the gun flew." A bullet passed over his head and he turned to kill his enemy just in time to see the man get shot by the same bush Kai had been saved by before. It was starting to creep them out – it was a clever and cowardly way of fighting and they were lucky that whoever it was had the same side as they. Then they had to move again, changing place and position compared to each other. "Ian, have you seen Bry?"

"Yes, I have…" There was an unnerving hesitation in the younger's voice that started alarms in the minds of the older teens', and they even forgot to keep an eye on the fighting when they attempted to get a glimpse of his face. "He's up there," the boy continued, motioning up to a place beside him. Tala was by the side of the imp that was turned to the place he had motioned, meaning Kai had his back to the place Bryan was supposed to be. And when he heard the redhead curse his stomach turned in slight worry.

"Down!" the smallest one suddenly said, and all three of them did. They rolled over and ended on their knees, ready to move once more if necessary. The bullet flew past them and would have hit the back of Kai's head if the kid hadn't said anything. Chaos was reigning around them still, the sound of bullets and death and dying ringing in their ears like a well-known melody. But the way they were positioned now, the place they had ended up rolling to and the way they shifted around, Kai could see why his comrades had been feared and gasped about.

It was something as simple as a hand. Up by the top of a tree too far up for an easy climb a hand was seen limply hanging over the side, pale and big in a way that could only fit Bryan. Worse than that, it seemed unmoving, unloving, as though no consciousness was left. With the state he had been in and the sickness that he had suffered from it was all too easy to imagine a stray bullet to have passed his attention and hit. It left a sinking feeling in his stomach, one cold and sticky and clambering clammy to his chest. It was all too easy to imagine that another member was lost. And both of the other members were gone as well, dead or, worse, captives once more – for there it would be a gruesome death. But they all knew people died in battle, and in their situation the fact that Tyson had lived so long was a miracle.

Behind the place where the body laid the female soldier sat as well, sending bullets downwards. Her face was carved in stone, not making the slate feel any more comfortable about the state of his comrade, and as he watched a soldier below the tree saw her and sent a bullet upwards, attempting to hit her. The bullet flew past her, but the bullet she sent down did as well, gracing over the enemy's bulletproof west by the side of his waist. He attempted to move away, gun still lifted and the trigger about to be pulled… before his head exploded in blood when a bullet hit him.

It came from the bush once more, whoever shot from there hitting targets all too perfectly. Whoever hid down there was dangerous and needed to be found, their friend or no. His name was spoken, but instead of getting reminded of the fact that they were in battle he simply turned his head towards the redhead speaking, the good eye as thoughtful as the bad eye was unfocused. Then he was on the ground when something grabbed his feet, something snapping at his shoulder while he was still in the air and he met the cold snow, bullets flying over him.

He kicked out towards the sinner and heard a Russian curse from a known voice, Ian holding a hand over his nose when the slate looked down. Beside him Tala had fallen, once more without a gun and cursing deviously, holding a hand over his arm. Blood flooded from just above the redhead's wrist but the slate couldn't determine the severity of the wound or how he had acquired it. A numbness in his shoulder made him look down, taking his eyes off the battlefield aga. New red liquid flooded out from there, this time his own, and he closed his eyes when the realization shot pain through him. Ian was on his feet again, still holding his nose but not wounded enough to stop fighting, and the sound of his gun rung between the woods as so many others'.

Kai had no idea who was winning or who was losing, did not know if they would come out dead or alive. But he knew that the alternative was death, and death was not an option. As little as they had to live for he wasn't up for letting it go.

_Then let me…_

His eyes closed for a moment, a frown on his face when he heard Tala scramble to his feet again, a snarl resounding – a well-known, dangerous snarl able to make adult men cower back in fear. That was when he decided and he stood as well, the robotic arm raised and holding the gun when his real one gave in to the simple weight. As he opened his eyes a dark gleam held on to them.

* * *

I will apologize once more for the cruelty of letting you wait so long. I will do what I can to finish my creation, and it will happen though I cannot promise how soon. As said I have found other things in life, interesting people and funny things to do after the long depression I have been recovering from. I have said before that I thought it was over, but I guess that it is only good that you constantly find yourself able to become another bit happier, right?

Finished talking about myself now, I can only say that there will be about two chapters left of this story. Many of you will not like the ending, but it is done so because I have a sequel in mind. There is the problem with my heart not being as much in Beyblade anymore, so I cannot promise it will ever be done – I do not wish to leave anything unfinished on this site. This also means I will finish all I have started up until now, though time will probably pass. It also means that as long as I do not think I can finish the sequel it will not be made. But now that this is settled, I have only one thing to say!

Enjoy in joy and merry Christmas ^^


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